St Owen Street cycle contraflow consultation

Background

The St Owen Street scheme proposes the introduction of an informal on carriageway contraflow cycle lane along the length of St Owen Street, Hereford, a number of uncontrolled crossings with footway build outs, together with a new signal controlled crossing at the Bath Street end of St Owen Street.

The specific objectives of the scheme are:

• To provide a safe contraflow cycle route from the east along St Owen St into the city centre
• To improve the ease and safety for pedestrians crossing St Owen Street
• To improve the safety of vehicles using parking bays along St Owen Street

There has been a stated desire for a contraflow cycle scheme on St Owen Street for many years. A number of previous designs have been developed and taken to public consultation. Feedback from these consultations, together with design reviews and safety audits have contributed to the development of the design over this period.

An informal consultation on the current proposals was undertaken in the summer of 2017. That consultation confirmed overall support for the scheme and enabled the public to input into their preference for the options presented in the consultation.

View the details of the 2017 consultation

Statutory consultation

Following the informal consultation, the scheme design was finalised and a road safety audit and peer review undertaken. In parallel, the traffic regulation orders (TROs) necessary to implement the scheme were drafted. This statutory consultation was on the TROs required for the scheme.

The elements that make up this statutory consultation are:

• Proposed new movement restrictions, which would now allow cyclists to travel in both directions on the entire lengths of St Owen Street and Mill Street
• An update to the movement order to allow all buses to access the eastern arm of St Peter's Square, where it is proposed to have a new limited waiting parking place for buses outside Shire Hall
• A short length of footway to be extended and designated as shared use, on the western side of the junction of Mill Street and St Owen Street. The footway will also provide access to a new updated traffic signal controlled crossing with a pedestrian call facility
• Rearranged, pay and display parking, disabled parking, bus parking, no waiting, no loading and loading restrictions in St Peter's Square, St Owen Street and around its junctions with Cantilupe/St Ethelbert Street and Mill Street to support the scheme. (To assist understanding the new arrangement all the restrictions are shown, whether amended or being retained. All parking places will also be lined parallel to the kerb)
• Proposed raised tables (75mm height, with ramps) intended to help reduce traffic speeds to comply with the existing 20mph speed limit. Two of the raised tables will also provide at level informal pedestrian crossing points along St Owen Street

Consultation documents

The following documents relate to this consultation:

• Hereford City Centre Order 2019 (This is the parking and loading order for the whole of Hereford City Centre, the consultation only relates to the changes in St Owen Street)
• St Owen Street Cycle and Bus Access Scheme Movement Order 2019
• St Owen Street movement proposals TRO plan
• St Owen Street parking proposals TRO plan
• St Owen Street traffic calming proposals TRO plan
• St Owen Street public notice
• Statement of reasons

The consultation started on 14 March and ran for 21 days to 4 April 2019.

Any representations received by the council may be imparted to third parties.

If you require any further information please contact us on 01432 261800, or email StOwenSt@balfourbeatty.com