South Gloucestershire Council want to spend £30 million of taxpayers money ripping up roundabouts along the ring road, introducing “throughabouts” or "hamburger roundabouts."

Roundabouts affected by the project are Lyde Green, The Rosary (aka Emersons Green), Siston Hill, Deanery Road and Kingsfield.

It’s clear from the plans that:

• There will be years of disruption
  If these plans go ahead we would have an estimated three years of delays, road works, noise and construction traffic affecting all users of the ring road

• Buses, cyclists and pedestrians are neglected
  The plans do not provide adequate provision for either pedestrians or cyclists and make no commitment to improving bus frequency and reliability. A larger and busier road could also potentially increase the risks of accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists.

• The plans do nothing to address the climate emergency
  South Gloucestershire Council has declared a climate emergency. These proposals will not make any positive difference to the enormous environmental challenges we face. And the latest IPCC report underlines the urgency of taking climate change seriously.

We now also know that:

• Poor air quality is bad for health
  The air quality for people living, working or going to school near the ring road is already poor. The government’s own review shows that more roads makes more traffic. Any increase in traffic on the road would have detrimental health effects, especially for people who already suffer from asthma or other respiratory conditions.

• Work patterns have changed
  Since the pandemic people have become more used to working at home or travelling at less busy times of the day. The traffic demands on the ring road have changed dramatically since the proposal was first developed. There is little evidence that these proposals align with the current and future travel needs of South Glos and Bristol residents.

So we the undersigned call upon South Gloucestershire Council to scrap these plans and investigate other more appropriate ways of reducing congestion in our area!