public realm

Brighton presses on with Valley Gardens vision

 An artist’s impression of how the Valley Gardens area will look following improvements to prioritise space for walking and cycling & CITY COUNCIL

Work is under way in the south coast city to give more space to sustainable travel in a key central location. But an upcoming phase of the scheme is proving controversial, reports Steve Dale.

nhancing the public realm, are difficult to access and therefore through simplifying and reducing the green spaces and provision for under used. number of junctions and providing new Eactive travel are among the “We are enhancing the tourism offer intelligent signalling equipment.” This primary aims of a project to transform for the city by improving the public is expected to help reduce the number a problematic north-south corridor in realm and providing a more walkable of collisions, a high proportion of which central Brighton. environment that is enjoyable to be currently involve vulnerable road users. Work recently began on site to in, rather than pieces of grass highly Meanwhile some 9000m2 of new and deliver the first two phases of the three dominated by traffic,” says Brighton & widened paved footway and 7000m2 of part Valley Gardens scheme, which “We are Hove City Council’s project manager shared paved footway / cycleway are involves a package of improvements enhancing the for phases one and two, Tracy Beverley. being provided across phases one and in a district close to important city tourism offer by The project also aims to provide two, in addition to 560m of segregated landmarks. These include the Royal improving the better facilities for cycling and will cycle routes. Pavilion, St Peter’s Church, the Old public realm.” make the highway network and Twelve toucan crossings, two shared Tracy Beverley Steine and Brighton Palace Pier. junction layouts ‘more legible’. Tracy pedestrian and cycle crossings and But some say the area’s appeal as a explains: “We have a convoluted road three puffin crossings will be installed tourist destination is being stunted network that doesn’t make sense, to improve east-west access across the by a heavily trafficked, accident prone particularly to visitors and people who area and to the gardens, which are also gyratory system where the A23 reaches don’t know the area,” adding that “the being enhanced through landscaping. its most southerly point. This traffic infrastructure is getting a bit tired and “There was a clear steer from  Planning traffic surrounds pockets of green space, management has is in need of significant maintenance”. stakeholders that they wanted to known as the Valley Gardens, which been a challenge The existing gyratory system will make better use of the green spaces,” be replaced with a new arrangement said Tracy. “We have got people trying that sees northbound and southbound to get to the gardens but they are general traffic passing to the east of the segregated by excessive guard railing. gardens, with buses and taxis using the The intention is to open the space up a route to the west. lot more and make it more usable.” “The idea was always to provide Two new public squares will be built as much as possible a ‘traffic neutral’ to allow events to take place in the situation,” says Tracy. “Our modelling gardens and 152 new trees are to be shows a slight increase in journey planted across the site as well as new times of two minutes on average for lighting and drainage improvements. buses and general traffic. “Our landscape designers were briefed “It’s a similar journey time and with introducing certain trees and we have managed to achieve that features which will help to reduce

16 transportation professional public realm

Bus patronage highest outside London and continues to rise

Innovative thinking and a keen focus on promoting sustainable transport have helped Brighton & Hove to top a list for the number of bus journeys per head of the population outside of the capital. Latest bus use statistics from the Government showed that in 2017-18, Brighton achieved 171 passenger journeys per head at a time when patronage across much of England is declining. “We are now “We are now up to about 49 million bus up to about passenger journeys a year which has doubled 49 million bus over 25 years and is still rising slowly,” says passenger journeys a year.” Brighton & Hove City Council’s assistant director Mark Prior for city transport Mark Prior. This he puts in large part down to long term relationships that the city has forged with its  Brighton has seen success with its bus services as patronage declines elsewhere bus operators. “We have an active ‘quality bus partnership’, which is voluntary but each partner “From the bus company side, we expect them out ‘talking’ bus stops and was among the first puts in a contribution to the city,” he explains. to provide quality buses, a reliable timetable, to introduce a smartcard scheme for ticketing, “The council has provided an extensive marketing to encourage patronage and an ensuring the bus network is easy to use. A network of bus lanes which support journey time extensive network of coverage.” successful bid for Government funding also reliability and ease of access, and we have 120 The city also provides real time information resulted in around 80 buses being retrofitted with signalised junctions that give buses priority. signs at bus stops, was the first authority to roll cleaner Euro 6 engines, reducing emissions.

major junctions that we are tackling.” Included among the plans are A23 A270 Train Station Some footway widening and improvements to an accident blackspot St Peter’s upgrade works have already been in front of Brighton Pier, where a Church completed in the eastern part of roundabout is being converted to a

Valley the site, and the scheme is soon T-junction controlled by traffic signals. North Gardens Laines due to move into its second traffic But stakeholder group the Valley management arrangement. Work on Gardens Forum’s co-ordinator Daniel Brighton phases one and two are on schedule to Nathan argues: “Something has gone Royal conclude in March 2020. seriously wrong with Valley Gardens Pavilion But what of phase three? This phase three,” citing concerns over air The Lanes Kemptown final section of the project – covering quality and community severance as a the area from the Old Steine to result of the proposed traffic layout. A259 Brighton Pier – has proved much “We’d all agree there should be fewer more controversial than the initial cars in the overcrowded centre. But Palace two phases. the way to achieve this is by a holistic Pier In February, the project received solution that leads from the outside approval from the council to proceed in, with an attractive park and ride to detailed design. This followed a scheme supported by affordable, public consultation at the end of last modern and reliable public transport.” the impact of pollution from traffic,” year which resulted in a number of Phase three has been granted £6M of she adds. revisions to the original proposals. funding from the Coast to Capital local Construction work is split into The council’s assistant director for enterprise partnership, and could be 10 different traffic management city transport Mark Prior MCIHT completed by spring 2021. phases to deliver the improvements explains: “We now have a good idea of incrementally while maintaining traffic how the scheme will look and feel at Brighton Valley Gardens flows. “From a design perspective the southern end of the gardens area. (phases one and two) the most challenging aspect was “Phase three will have some really Budget: £10.4M working out the traffic management important features including bus Completion: March 2020 arrangements,” says Tracy. priority, much needed public spaces, Client: Brighton & Hove City Council “You can plan it on the table all you direct walking and cycling routes and Principal contractor: Dyer & Butler like, but what happens on the ground improved road safety,” says Mark. The Highways consultant: Project Centre is often different. Things have worked area currently has the highest number Landscape design architect: quite well to date but we have got some of collisions in the city, amounting to Untitled Practice challenges coming up with some of the 154 incidents over a five year period.

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