A53 Basford Bank ‘bus gate’ update
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Staffordshire County Council have issued a joint statement regarding a possible alternative to the Basford Bank 'bus gate'.
It said:
As plans for a bus gate on Etruria Road became more detailed, we were concerned by the scale of the predicted traffic diversions and the impact this would have on many other side roads in the area, affecting the lives of hundreds of residents.
We recently shared an emerging alternative proposal with the UK Government that would avoid a bus gate being installed, which would also achieve the city and borough councils’ legal obligation to reduce pollution.
There is still a lot of work to be done to get a final plan completed and approved by the UK Government.
Work on the bus gate has now been paused while all three councils focus their efforts on completing a full business case for this alternative proposal.”
A spokesman for Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council said that the authority had been making the case for a proportionate resolution to the problem since 2018: an argument strengthened by the change in people’s travel habits since the Covid lockdowns and the move towards older vehicles being replaced by newer, less-polluting models.