Exeter green-lights traffic overhaul

Cycling campaigners celebrate

Cycling campaigners celebrated at County Hall after councillors agreed to go ahead with a new traffic project in Exeter.

Members of the city’s highways and traffic orders committee agreed unanimously to bring in the new layout in the Newtown area.

Campaigner Ed Pickering told them: “Exeter is a progressive city, and we should be setting an example to other cities.”

The package of measures, which will cost almost half a million pounds to bring in, will include banning traffic from part of Russell Street; introducing contraflow cycling along Clifton Hill and stopping parking in parts of Belmont Road, Clifton Hill, Clifton Street, Heavitree Road, Clifton Road and Russell Street.

Pay and display meters will also appear in parts of Russell Street.

A Sport England grant will be used to bring in the Newtown Community Transformation Project, which is a collaboration between Exeter City Council’s Live and Move project and Devon County Council.

“Newtown has been chosen as a great location for a transformative scheme with the needs of the community at its heart,” said a report to the meeting.

Public consultation began back in 2021, and the response from people living in Newtown has been positive.

Mr Pickering told the meeting: “Increasing active travel means lower pollution, less congestion and better road safety. People want to be able to cycle, walk and wheel around their city.

“By doing things like this, councils can make positive and progressive changes.”

James Diamond of the Exeter Cycling Campaign described the proposals as ‘really exciting’ and added: “Please listen to the community and support making Newtown an even better place to live.”

Exeter city councillor Duncan Wood said he had been involved with the consultation for five years, and it was very different from the abandoned low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) project trialled in Heavitree amid public protests.

“This is not an LTN,” he said. “It’s not Heavitree. This is something completely different.

“This didn’t come out of a vacuum, it came out of consultation with the community. We have spent a lot of time thinking through this and listening.

“It is about making all users of that space safer.”

Work could begin on the project before April next year.