Plan to ease traffic congestion in Evesham

10:37am Friday 14th November 2008

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AN Evesham man has a plan to ease traffic congestion in the town and wants to petition the county council to make changes to the current town centre ‘shambles’.

Philip Cooper of St Peter’s Close has suggested making Mill Street and Mill Bank open to two-way traffic from the Oat Street junction. He says this will enable traffic from High Street to access the Riverside multi-storey car park and Port Street, reducing traffic on Abbey Road.

Mr Cooper said: “I had a good response from Evesham Town Council after I e-mailed them with my plans. They were all in favour of an extra traffic route to the bridge but they said their hands were tied by the county council holding the purse strings.

“I think the whole town should get a petition together and bombard the county council with a demand to act on this shambles.”

The plans were discussed at Evesham Town Council on Monday (10) evening where Mayor Alan Booth said he thought they ‘made sense.’ He added: “There is a huge build up of traffic over the bridge and this would help.”

Cllr John Payne said: “It is not viable to have two way traffic on this street according to consultants. They say that two larger vehicles could not pass each other on the corner of Mill Street and Bridge Street simultaneously.

“But the town is congested now and I can only see it getting worse if nothing is done.”

The town council decided to contact Richard Attwood in the Highways Department and are awaiting a response.

However, Worcestershire County Council spokesman Lee Shrimpton said that adjustments to the traffic flow situation in Evesham ‘is not on the agenda.’ “We are concentrating on the High Street enhancement scheme but are always happy to hear from people who put forward ideas,” he said.