Gloucestershire County Council has made changes to some of the parking restrictions in Stroud Town Centre and is trialling changes to times when delivery vehicles can access the pedestrianised streets.
To improve safety and to give better access to businesses, the county council has proposed to make some permanent changes to the waiting, loading and parking restrictions in Stroud town centre.
The permanent changes are being proposed to allow better management and enforcement of the loading in King Street, George Street and Kendrick Street.
The proposals create specific loading only areas and prevent loading in other locations where it could pose a hazard or prevent the free flow of traffic.
There will also be more on street parking spaces for blue badge holders as a result of requests from members of the public.
Residents and visitors to the town centre will already see the new signage in place and traffic wardens in the area are now enforcing the new restrictions.
As well as the permanent changes, some experimental changes are also taking place. For example, there are differing loading times in King Street, High Street, Kendrick Street, Bedford Street, Fawkes Place and Rowcroft Retreat which are all in the pedestrianised area.
These differing times have led to confusion for road users so the council aims to change the loading times to 4pm-midday. This prevents deliveries from taking place between midday and 4pm when the streets are busiest with pedestrians.
Cllr Vernon Smith, cabinet member for highways and flood said, “This move creates some consistency in Stroud town centre allowing time for deliveries to be made to businesses and at the same time reducing the risk to pedestrians and other road users.”
An experimental ‘Traffic Regulation Order’ will run for up to 18 months and its impact will be reviewed during this time to see how successful it is.
Being an experiment there is scope for the council to make the changes permanent, amend them slightly or drop them altogether depending how the experiment goes, and subject to further consultation.
For more information visit: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/extra/stroudtowncentre
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