Missing Bristol link needs joined-up thinking

Drive along Hengrove Way from Hartcliffe Way and the dual carriageway suddenly comes to an abrupt halt at a small roundabout.

The wide new road – well, it was new 40 or 50 years ago – should have continued to the A38 but the money dried up and it was never finished.

It would have provided the last link for a ring road stretching around the south of the city from the A4 Bath Road.

Instead, we are left worming our way along narrow traffic-clogged residential streets in south Bristol that simply cannot cope with today's volume of vehicles.

Now the politicians, the highways experts and the civil servants are stepping up a gear to get the link built between that miserable roundabout at Cater Road in Bishopsworth and the A370 at Yanley.

The link, expected to cost about £40m, is expected to provide one of the keys to regenerating south Bristol which has suffered from lack of investment because of landlock for decades.

It will also provide easier access to Bristol International Airport and relieve congestion in Barrow Gurney where the road dangerously narrows to a single lane in parts of the village.

It will also help to ease traffic flows for commuters travelling into the city from the south and help football fans reach the proposed new stadium at Ashton Vale if it wins planning permission.

Bristol Lib Dem cabinet councillor Jon Rogers, who is in charge of the council's transport department, said: "We've got excellent transport links in the north of the city but the trouble there has been that it has attracted new investment but the roads cannot cope with the increase in traffic.

"What we need to do is balance the city up so that we have investment south of the city as well."

But a price will have to be paid for the new link which the officials are stressing should be called a link route, not a road, because it will feature other forms of transport.

A rapid transit system – bendybuses running on a dedicated track – will run parallel to most of the new road and wherever possible, there will be a cycleway and footpath.

The experts started off with five possible routes which have now been whittled down to two.

They stress the exact route of the new link has not yet been proposed.

But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that the route is likely to run between Gatehouse Avenue and Goulston Road before meeting King George's Road.

From there, it is likely to take a path across the green belt to meet the A38 north of Town and Country Lodge Hotel. It would then cut north of the tip at Yanley and meet the A370 Long Ashton bypass at a point near the Bristol end.

The second option (known as the outer route) would sweep much closer to the hotel and then bend south to meet the Long Ashton bypass at the top of the hill where the dual carriageway starts.

The highways experts are currently working on the technical detail of both options and are due to publish their findings next month.

Once we know the proposed routes, there will be a six-week public consultation exercise.

There will be a series of exhibitions and displays in Long Ashton, Ashton Vale, Hartcliffe and Withywood which will give people a chance to examine the proposals and question the experts.

Residents in the area will be leafleted to give them a chance to understand what is proposed.

They will also be urged to post their comments on the website, www.westofengland.org/southbristollink and there will be publicity in the local media.

Community groups and ward councillors will be contacted for their views.

It's worth noting that, whatever route is finally proposed, planning permission will be needed – which will mean a separate round of consultation by the local authorities involved, Bristol City and North Somerset councils.

Details of the exhibitions will be given later.

If all goes according to plan, then a bid for funding will be put before the Department for Transport in March next year.

The aim is to start building the link in 2014-15. It's not yet clear when it might be finished because this depends on which route is chosen.

Both routes have their technical challenges.

The inner route would have to cross the main railway line – probably by using an underpass which would cost an estimated £5.3m – while the outer route would cost much more in land acquisition (£15m compared with £13.7m for the inner route).

What is important to flag up is that the much-talked about link between the Hartcliffe Way roundabout and Hicks Gate roundabout on the Bristol end of the Keynsham bypass is unlikely to go ahead for many years.

There had been suggestions that this final link would provide the last piece of the jigsaw to ease traffic congestion in South Bristol. After all, the A4 Bath Road, Callington Road, and Hengrove Way are hideously busy every day.

But this section of road won't be built in the foreseeable future for several reasons.

First, there is not the political will to see it through. Councillors in B&NES (Bath and North East Somerset) are keen on it because so many of their voters live in the Bath area and travel to work in Bristol each day.

But councillors in Bristol and North Somerset are unlikely to give it support because of its intrusion on the green belt which they know, for them, can only be a vote-loser.

Second, there is the professional argument over making it easier for all of us to travel.

The experts will tell you that we cannot solve this problem by building more roads alone.

What is needed is an integrated transport system which links up roads, buses, rail and other forms of travel such as rapid transit systems (bendybuses), cycleways, park and ride sites and even footpaths.

Part of this equation will see a bendybus route from Long Ashton park and ride, alongside the new South Bristol Link and on to a new terminus at Hengrove. Here, you will be able to get another bendybus service through the city centre to the northern fringe (£163m has already been promised for this north-south route).

The experts believe that travel alternatives such as the bendybus will ease the volume of traffic on our roads because they will provide fast, reliable modes of transport we are prepared to use on a daily basis.

There's a third reason why the proposed stretch of road between the Hartcliffe Way and Hicks Gate roundabouts (Phase Three) has been consigned to the long grass – the small question of money.

The West of England Partnership – a body which represents the four councils in the former Avon area – has drawn up its priority list for transport improvements during the next 10 years.

These include upgrading the Portishead rail link so the line can take passenger services; building the Callington Road link road (a short-cut to ease traffic congestion at the junction with West Town Lane and the A4 Bath Road); a £20m priority list of improvements in Weston-super-Mare; two new park and ride sites; more showcase bus routes; building three rapid transit (bendybus) routes; building the Bristol Metro – a new rail track running north of the city; and a bypass for Junction 21 on the M5 at Weston-super-Mare.

Phase Three of the South Bristol Link Road does not feature on this list.

The fact is that there is not enough money for every project and the wishlist above has been agreed as a result of full support from councillors in all of the four councils in the Bristol area.

This consensus is no mean feat. Yes, these councillors have their own territories to protect and improve but for all of them to agree on projects which are not necessarily in their own area is starting to show the kind of joined-up thinking which is desperately needed if we are to solve Bristol's daily traffic delays.