A series of workshops are to be held over the next three months as part of an ongoing collaboration between the B&NES council and the community on plans for its livable neighborhoods.

Bath & North East Somerset Council has announced it will hold a series of workshops with communities, giving people who live, work or regularly visit the fifteen priority areas time to discuss how the streets in their neighborhood can be improved.

The goal of the Habitable Neighborhoods program is to reduce the dominance of vehicles on neighborhood streets, while maintaining access to homes and businesses.

The local authority stressed that the changes are planned without disadvantaging people with reduced mobility and will create healthier outdoor spaces for everyone to share.

The workshops are expected to result in a set of measures tailored to each area, which may include improvements to the public realm, traffic calming, better infrastructure for walking and cycling, secure storage of bicycles or modal filters that restrict access to certain vehicles.

These interventions can reduce problems such as through traffic, speeding, commuter parking and air pollution.

The workshops are part of an ongoing consultation with residents, businesses and community groups to develop and implement livable neighborhood projects.

The 15 priority areas are:

• Mount Road (Southdown, Bath)
• The area bounded by Sydney Place, Great Pulteney Street, St Johns Road and Bathwick Street (Bathwick, Bath)
• Whitchurch and Queen Charlton Village (Publow with Whitchurch and Saltford)
• Circus, Lower Lansdown, Marlborough Buildings, Royal Victoria Park and Cork Street (Kingsmead and Lansdown, Bath)
• Oldfield Lane and First, Second and Third Avenues (Oldfield Park, Bath)
• London Road, Snow Hill, Kensington Gardens and adjacent roads (Walcot, Bath) Phase 1
• Church Street and Prior Park Road (Widcombe and Lyncombe, Bath)
• Chelsea Road, Foxcombe Road (Newbridge, Bath)
• Entrance Hill (Widcombe and Lyncombe, Bath)
• Southlands, Weston, Bath
• Morris Lane and Bannerdown (Batheaston, North Bathavon)
• (New) Sydney Place and Sydney Road (Bathwick, Bath)
• Egerton Road and Cotswold Road (Moorlands, Bath)
• Temple Cloud (Mendip)
• Lyme Road and Charmouth Road (Newbridge, Bath)

Between November and January last year, more than 1,600 people responded to a series of questions about liveable neighborhoods, with 51% supporting liveable neighborhood schemes, 36% expressing neutral views and 13% against their implementation.

The pledge found many areas expressing a desire for changes to improve pedestrian safety, more traffic calming measures and improved cycling infrastructure. In addition, a desire for general improvement of the public realm was expressed.

Several concerns were also raised. These included the potential impact of vehicle access restrictions, which some residents feared would simply move an existing problem from one area to another.

Councilor Sarah Warren, Deputy Chief and Cabinet Member for Climate and Sustainable Travel, said: “We are moving to the next stage of our livable neighborhoods program which is working with communities across the 15 priority areas to co-design interventions in response to specific issues raised by residents during our previous engagement.

“The goal is to develop tailor-made solutions for each area with many contributions from people who live, work or regularly visit the areas, so that together we create safer and healthier spaces with equitable access to water. road space for all.

“We have set out our Journey to Net Zero ambitions, to change the way people move, reduce emissions, improve air quality, improve public health, tackle congestion and reduce the impact of travel on the climate and the Livable Neighborhoods program will play a part in achieving this. »

Following the workshops, the project team will use the results to prepare preliminary designs for each of the 15 areas.

There will then be another round of public engagements, allowing people to comment on the proposed interventions for each area.

If the plans are supported, some temporary interventions may be introduced as part of Experimental Traffic Control Orders (ETROs), giving residents and businesses the opportunity to comment or object to how the interventions are working in situ before being made permanent.

In the 15 zones, there are also five places where temporary interventions have already been proposed by members of the neighborhood to progress more quickly:

• Queen Charlton Lane, Whitchurch (Publow with Whitchurch and Saltford)
• Southlands (Weston, Bath)
• Church Street (Widcombe and Lyncombe, Bath)
• Royal Victoria Park, Bath (Kingsmead and Lansdown, Bath)
• Cork Street and Tennyson Road (Kingsmead and Lansdown, Bath)

Preliminary designs for these pilot interventions are being prepared and will then be submitted for public engagement.

If pilot interventions are supported, they will be temporarily introduced to the streets with an Experimental Traffic Control Ordinance (ETRO).

As part of the Livable Neighborhoods program, neighborhood members also submitted proposals for seven resident parking zones. These are currently viewed until 5 p.m. on June 2.

Residents and businesses who expressed a desire to remain involved in the process during the previous round of engagement are being contacted to participate in this next phase of the Habitable Neighborhoods program.

The council says it also strives to ensure representation of harder to reach groups, people with disabilities and underrepresented groups.

Anyone who lives, works or regularly visits one of the 15 priority territories and who missed the first opportunity to get involved; who thinks they can contribute to the co-design workshop; or who represents a specific interest/demographic, can express their interest in participating in the workshops by sending an e-mail [email protected]