More restrictions planned for drivers in Bath

Bollards were installed on Sydney Road in Bath in April

Three more roads in Bath will be closed to through-traffic in July as part of the council's liveable neighbourhoood programme.

Bath and North East Somerset Council plans to overhaul access to Gay Street and will also install bollards on Catharine Place and on Winfred's Lane.

The schemes will block access for vehicles, but not cyclists and pedestrians.

The council says the three new schemes will be in place on a trial period, which will last for at least six months, while a public consultation is carried out.

A coach had to turn around after getting stuck on Sydney Road

The announcement comes days after residents say a coach spent half an hour turning around after driving along Sydney Road, which has become a liveable neighbourhood with bollards across the end of the road.

A lorry which made the same turn a few days before knocked down one house’s gatepost.

Under the news plans, the upper end of Gay Street, between the junction with George Street and the Circus, will become only accessible from the Circus, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

The road will remain two-way, with space for vehicles heading down the road from the Circus to turn around. There will also be a left-turn only onto George Street.

The council’s cabinet member for highways Manda Rigby said: “The aim is to address speeding and excessive through traffic."

'Reduce rat-running'

The Circus Area Residents Association welcomed the plans for bollards on Catharine Place and the overhaul of Gay Street.

Speaking after the plans were announced in January, Malcolm Baldwin, chair of the Circus Area Residents Association said: "Alongside a reduction in unnecessary and intrusive ‘rat-running’, such innovations would be to the benefit of residents and local businesses alike.”

The council’s previous three liveable neighbourhood trials were installed in November 2022 and made permanent in January — despite protests calling for one of the schemes to be removed.

People will be able to have a say on the new trial areas when a consultation launches from mid-July.

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