FAO Mr Brian Hubbert

24 March 2014

Projects Manager Project Management and Design Land and Environmental Services 231 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1RX

Dear Sir,

FASTLINK ROUTE (ELDER STREET TO MOSS ROAD) TRAFFIC REGULATION ORDER 201

The above Traffic Regulation Order will create a two-way bus lane dedicated to the Fastlink buses down the centre of Govan Road between Elder Street and Moss Road with a centre island bus halt, leaving all other vehicles including buses on single lanes at either side and abolishing most parking down most of the route.

As a Govan resident I hereby object to this proposal and the above Order for the following reasons:

1. Community Severance The dedicated lane will create a visual and physical barrier within a main street that serves Elder Park and new housing to the south and existing housing, the shipyard, the newly restored Fairfield offices and future housing with planning consent to the north. These are all facilities that are used by the community where access by pedestrians, cycles, local buses and local cars must be given priority over wider movements (ref: ‘Designing Streets’ Scottish Government Policy Document)

2. Local Settlement Impacts The cars currently parking on Govan Road that are being displaced will find alternative locations within the local residential streets to the detriment of the environment of these residential areas.

3. Access Residents, workers and business users to the north will be unable to turn right along Govan Road and will use nearby residential streets to turn, creating safety hazards for residents and their children.

4. Appearance and Sense of Place Govan has been made a Conservation Area and benefited from investment to reinforce its strong identity and sense of place. This sterile physical feature along the length of Govan Road will be out of scale and character within the conservation area and is retrogressive. 5. Design The design of the Fastlink corridor means that persons using the service will have to cross a busy carriageway onto a central island and wait in the middle of Govan Road which is likely to create hazards at times of peak demand if the service is well used.

6. Historic Significance Conservation studies have placed emphasis on the key relationship between Elder Park and the Shipyard with its historic offices. The park was built by the shipyard owners for their workers and contains many features such as statues of John and Isabella Elder, the Daphne monument and the model boating pond. These together with the Category ‘A’ Listed Engineering Works and Fairfield Offices to the north create an important grouping of exceptional heritage interest unified around Govan Road.

Govan Road is passing through a place of special interest at Elder Park. The double lane down its centre will damage this character at a time when all other public sector efforts are being made to recognise and recover Govan’s unique heritage.

7 Consultations As background to the above objection, I have received information about the nature of the consultation carried out by the Fastlink team and tried to understand how so many factors have come to be ignored.

From the presentations that were made at Orkney Street and the Pearce Institute the single principle annunciated, behind the design of the Fastlink bus corridor, has been to maximise the speed of the buses through the area by taking up every opportunity that presents itself.

Despite going through a process of consultation, the team has not actually studied the likely impacts of their design on the local community or the heritage of Govan and has not made consideration of these impacts a priority, preferring to focus on time-saving as the sole criteria for design. There is no document available that provides an assessment of other design impacts, which is essential in such a sensitive urban area in the process of social and economic recovery.

I therefore consider that a great injustice is being perpetrated by the Fastlink team in their rush to meet a highly restricted brief.

8 Conflict with Scottish Government policy Scottish Government policy urges “the creation of successful places through good street design.” The policy statement “Designing Streets” is very clear and unambiguous: • Consider the place before vehicle movement • Providing for movement along a street is vital, but should not be considered independently of the street’s other functions • Streets should no longer be designed by assuming ‘place’ to be automatically subservient to ‘movement’ In its proposal to create a sterile ‘road within a road’ that will divide among other things Govan’s historic park from the famous shipyard that created it, the Fastlink team has unacceptably ignored the Scottish Government’s new and enlightened guidelines.

9 Conclusion When all of these negative impacts are weighed against the small gain in time on offer to Fastlink buses, the only sensible conclusion is to abandon the Traffic Regulation Order now being pursued. Govan has suffered from decades of mismanagement of its streets by traffic engineers obsessed with movement to the detriment of all other considerations. Golspie Street in central Govan stands testament to their failures.

As an objector I would urge those tasked with a final decision on this TRO, which for reasons cited above is technically flawed, to consider the needs of the Govan community and to abandon the unnecessary proposal for a dedicated centre-running bus lane.

Yours faithfully,