FAQ 8. Evesham Road
FAQ 8. Evesham Road
Is this scheme connected to any proposals to build a link road at Evesham Road?
What LCC says:
No – this scheme stands alone as a project and provides benefits to the area independently of other highway projects. References in the Department of Transport bid document to the Evesham Road link are intended only to reflect the presence of the existing highway improvement lines and to put this in the context of the Putney Road scheme, recognising there may be potential linked opportunities should this link be built at some point in the future.
All existing highway improvement / line schemes are currently subject to review as part of the ongoing Local Plan process where we are consulting over potential safeguarding provisions required for new transport links linked to future development (See consultations.leicester.gov.uk/sec/leicester-local-plan-reference-documents)
In relation to the Evesham Road link scheme, no decisions have been made on taking this forward and there is currently no detailed scheme design or funding allocated. A detailed transport feasibility assessment would have to be carried out to demonstrate the benefits of such a scheme to the wider transport network.
What we say:
This is an extraordinarily long statement by the council about something the scheme is not about. We think the council doth protest too much.
Our reply is lengthy because this is probably the most important issue concerning this new link road. As evidence we draw upon:
- what the Council said in its bid for the funding for this road;
- what the City Mayor has said;
- what the Council claims this new road will offer on its own;
- what the traffic modelling the Council has carried out shows;
- and finally the design of the new junction with Aylestone Road.
Every one of these areas of evidence points in one direction – that this road is linked to a further new link across to Evesham Road, and that this road doesn’t make any sense without it. And it is this which makes opposing the Putney Link Road so important. For when this further link is built, the traffic and associated affects on Clarendon Park will be immense and far beyond what the Putney Link Road itself will create. There will be a route from the motorway network and Narborough Road going directly through Clarendon Park to the A6 at the Mayfield Road roundabout and beyond.
In replying to this, we can start with the Council’s own words about the connections between this scheme and a further link to Evesham Road. There are three specific references to the Evesham Road scheme in the bid for funding for the Putney Link Road.
One of the listed benefits of the Putney Link road is that it will ‘Provide preparatory work if the Evesham Road link (new vehicular bridge over River Soar and canal) proceeds in the future’.
(Page 7)
The council goes further saying: ‘Leicester City Council is considering a future scheme whereby Evesham Road would be extended to provide a direct link (new vehicular bridge over River Soar and canal) between the A426 Aylestone Road and the A5460 Narborough Road and M1/J21. There are very few river crossings in the south of the city (namely Upperton Road and Middleton Street) and providing this link would free up those congested routes across the river. The Putney Road link would greatly enhance the viability of building the Evesham Road link.’
(Page 8) Note the words ‘is considering’. Not ‘may consider’, or ‘could consider’, or ‘there is an option’, or ‘a possibility in the future’, or any other way of making an indeterminate statement looking ahead to some unknown time. ‘Is considering’
is active, and it is present, and it means now.
And third, just in case there is any doubt about the connection with the Putney Link Road created by the two statements above, they provide a map showing it. (Annex 1, section A3)
The City Mayor, reported in the Leicester Mercury on 6th February 2018, said
‘It is a line on a map. There is no plan. There is no funding.’ But then added,
‘However when you see the real problems with congestion on Upperton Road and the tangle of traffic you get through Aylestone the benefits of a third bridge could be seen.’
This all looks like something more than reflecting ‘the presence of the existing highway improvement lines and to put this in the context of the Putney Road scheme’.
It creates a picture of a far closer connection than this between the Putney Link Road and a further link to Evesham Road to make the connection to Narborough Road and the motorway network.
Perhaps even more telling than what the bid document and the Mayor say is what it is claimed the Putney Link Road will achieve on its own. The council emphasises claimed improvements in connectivity between the east and west of the city, between the motorways at Junction 21 of the M1 from Leicester University, the Freeman’s Common business area, and the ‘area of the city that lies to the east of the project location’ (meaning everything to the east of Victoria Park Road). It also claims congestion around Leicester Royal Infirmary, De Montfort University, and on the inner and outer ring roads will be reduced.
These benefits will be achieved, highway officers have told us, by routing traffic to the M1 along Aylestone Road and then across to Narborough Road through Middleton Street – a route the council says above is already congested and in need of relief – by building the Evesham Road link. The Putney Link Road alone cannot improve access to Junction 21 and the wider motorway network, and the additional route it is claimed to provide will be a worse option for traffic to use. Similarly the Putney Link Road cannot relieve congestion around LRI or any of the other places mentioned.
There is a further area of evidence which can be used to examine the claim that the Putney Link Road stands alone as an independent project which is the council’s own traffic analysis. This is what the results of the traffic analysis showed for the Putney road scheme:
‘These results showed that the scheme operated in two modes depending on the time of day:
In the morning peak the junction provided a through link for traffic heading from the east of Leicester to the west. Traffic using Putney Road from the west was predominantly directed towards businesses located within the Putney Road area.
In the evening peak both the majority of traffic using Putney Road was associated with the businesses located in the Putney Road area. Modelling showed there was very little `through' traffic.’ (Pages 8-9)
If this is correct, and we have some significant doubts about the accuracy of the traffic modelling, the main thing it shows is that the Putney Link Road on its own does not work as a link road. It operates as a link for through traffic going east-west in the morning peak period only, There is no west-east through traffic in the morning peak, and none either way in the evening peak. Moreover, the modelling also shows that with the Putney Link Road in place the morning peak traffic travels a greater distance and has a longer journey time than if it isn’t there. So even when it is functioning as a link road the results are the opposite of what the council claims. As a link road it does not shorten journey times but increases them; it makes journey times longer meaning there is more congestion, and this means more not less air pollution. It is important to remember that these are not our claims about the scheme – these are what the council’s own analysis shows.
So why build an independent stand-alone link road that doesn’t work as a link road, and makes traffic movement worse? It doesn’t appear to make any sense. The answer is that this is not intended to be an independent stand-alone scheme. It can only function as a link road with a further link to Narborough Road through Evesham Road. As it stands it doesn’t link anything to anything and the traffic modelling shows that. And all the claimed benefits of the scheme arise from local traffic accessing the business area.
If all of this isn’t sufficiently convincing there is further evidence in the design of the new junction where Putney Road will meet Aylestone Road. At that junction traffic travelling from the east (Victoria Park Road) along Putney Road can only turn left to go outbound on Aylestone Road, or along Saffron Lane. So the main link road function in either direction is for this route rather than for any other. But Aylestone Road outbound does not provide good connectivity to the places claimed by the council. The only way this junction arrangement makes sense is if the further link is built. Putney Link Road, as the Council says, will ‘Provide preparatory work if the Evesham Road link (new vehicular bridge over River Soar and canal) proceeds in the future’. (Page 7) The design of the junction reflects this preparation.
