Cycling campaigners blast proposed revamp of key Bristol road to M32

Campaigners have criticised the removal of cycling and walking improvements from a major revamp of a key road connecting north Bristol to the M32. City councillors approved the next step of plans for more bus lanes on Muller Road in Lockleaze.

But Bristol Cycling Campaign is furious that proposals first announced in 2018 to make active travel easier and safer on the ‘cycle-hostile road for only the brave and bold cyclist’ have been dropped. The council’s transport and connectivity policy committee voted 8-0, with one abstention, to proceed with the revised second phase of the project by submitting an outline business case (OBC) for almost £1million to create new bus lanes on the bottom half of Muller Road, from the railway bridge near Shaldon Road to Heath Road.

If it goes ahead, there will be sections of 12-hour bus lanes on both sides of the road. A report to the committee on Thursday, December 5, said the plans also included a new pedestrian crossing next to Fairfield High School, installing bollards between Shaldon Road and Elmcroft Crescent to limit private vehicles while allowing access for walking and cycling, and a raised table at the junction with Stottbury Road.

It said these measures would ‘help encourage active travel users by providing a safe environment to walk and cycle, as well as reduce the likelihood of accidents’. But Bristol Cycling Campaign chairman Ian Pond told the meeting that this was ‘misleading’.

He said: “We are extremely disappointed that walking and cycling has been dropped and is ‘out of scope’ of the OBC that’s been published. We consider this to be a massive policy failure which is not consistent with the council’s transport, environment or health goals.

“We consider the assessment that’s been prepared by officers to be factually misleading to the committee by the claims included suggesting the plan will increase walking and cycling despite these being dropped. We propose that the OBC should be rejected.”

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In a written statement to councillors he added that the charity’s response to public consultation earlier this year was that the proposals ‘completely miss the opportunity to make this road safer, easier and more accessible for people of all ages and abilities who want to make their journeys on a bike’. Mr Pond said: “Muller Road is currently a cycle-hostile road for only the brave and bold cyclist.

“We called for action to be taken to address this. We are extremely disappointed to read that following the consultation there have been no revisions to take advantage of the opportunity to change this.”

He said that despite the original plans for walking and cycling being scrapped, the OBC to the committee was ‘peppered with spurious claims suggesting the plan will increase cycle journeys stating it will increase “the use of public transport, walking, and cycling while reducing trips made by private vehicles”.’ Mr Pond said the document stated this would be achieved simply by ‘allowing cyclists to use the bus lane’, which he said was ‘barely credible as they are not only part-time, but also in short, disjointed sections’.

He said: “We contend that these claims are completely unrealistic and that references to increasing active travel in the document are misleading to committee members by their inclusion and repetition.” The committee report said the original scheme included more segregation for cycling than bus lanes but that this would have led to the loss of between 28 and 53 trees and the need to acquire third-party land on the section over the hill, so it was rejected and replaced with the new proposals.

These would see a bus lane created along the southern section of Muller Road from the railway bridge to Shaldon Road southbound and from Heath Road to Glenfrome Road northbound, both from 6am to 6pm weekdays and Saturdays. Transport improvements are needed because about 1,000 new homes are planned for Lockleaze.

The first phase of the Muller Road project was completed in December 2023. It focused on the northern half of the road, from its junction with Downend Road to Lidl, and included a new 24-hour inbound bus lane, bollards to limit through-traffic on important roads, and traffic signals, and was funded by Homes England.

The West of England Combined Authority will be asked for £988,000 for the second phase, and because the scheme has been reduced in scale, Bristol City Council will also request nearly £2million from the Muller Road project to go instead to improve the Lockleaze section of the Concorde Way walking and cycling route.

An amendment tabled by ward Cllr David Wilcox (Green, Lockleaze) was also agreed, which will see the back lanes behind 223 to 247 Muller Road and 2 to 38 Shaldon Road resurfaced as part of the business case. It said: “These are public rights of way that need to be repaired and made accessible for residents to safely use.”