Regeneration of Regent Street - options

You told us you want to shop locally, but some areas of Kingswood are not especially pleasant places to spend time. 

🗨️ Heavy traffic travels down the high street, making it noisy, congested and polluted. 

🗨️ You’d like it to be a more attractive place to be with better paving and lighting, more plants, trees and greenery, and places to sit and relax. 

🗨️ You value the local retailers who continue to ply their trade in the shopping centre and on the high street, but many shops and businesses have moved out, leaving behind empty premises. 

🗨️ Access is difficult for cars, cyclists and pedestrians, so you only tend to shop when you specifically need something. 

🗨️ You want to restore the sense of community, bringing back markets and events which attract new people to Kingswood and provide opportunities for local people to come together. 

Many towns across the country have pedestrianised high streets or restricted vehicle access to high streets to help deliver many of these benefits. Taking away traffic can create space and opportunities for people to meet and spend more time shopping and socialising.

We have considered the potential for pedestrianisation in Kingswood and in May 2020 took proposals out to public consultation. Local feedback showed that 69% of people were supportive of the principle of pedestrianisation. We investigated the options further and then in 2021, shared proposals for two potential diversions routes, a southern route, and a northern route.

The preferred option for local people was the southern route, opening up the existing westbound diversionary route along Cecil Road to eastbound traffic too. 

Since then, we have conducted further exploratory technical work on the two options, assessing road and junction capacity and gathering information on traffic counts and air quality. We have also conducted modelling exercises to explore where traffic might go based on both diversion routes.

Unfortunately, this work has identified that the preferred southern route is not technically feasible. The main issue is with junction capacity – simply put, key junctions would need to be remodelled to accommodate the predicted traffic levels and there is insufficient space to build the necessary infrastructure.

This technical work has also identified potential issues with the alternative northern route. It is technically complex to deliver, requiring significant traffic interventions, and we are concerned about the impacts - in terms of noise, air quality and accessibility - for people living in residential properties on this route. 

Additionally, for either potential diversion route, because of limited alternative access points to Regent Street, it would be difficult for shops and businesses to receive deliveries or have their rubbish collected.

Furthermore, modelling shows that both options for pedestrianisation would largely shift air quality issues from Regent Street to other areas. 

Recognising these challenges, we therefore also want to consider additional options to achieve the original outcomes. We are keen to understand public preference for the additional options to deliver what we all want for Kingswood.

Additional options

We have considered the potential benefits of each of these options in the table below and are looking for feedback on these different alternatives through the current engagement survey.