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Brighton residents demand action over traffic pollution

1:00pm Saturday 10th October 2009 in


Fed up residents are claiming their windows are rattling and their lives are being cut short by traffic pollution.

People who live in the Carlyle Street area of Brighton gathered outside Hove Town Hall to voice their anger at Brighton and Hove City Council for not doing more to help them.

Nancy Platts, the Labour parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion, joined around 50 people outside the council offices to deliver a letter asking officials to stop the road being used as a rat run which was causing noise and air pollution and putting lives in danger.

She said speeding 38-tonne lorries were using Carlyle Street, near Elm Grove School, as a cut through to get to the new industrial estate at the bottom of Freshfield Road while ignoring the 20mph speed limit.

Residents in the London Road area have formed their own group to challenge the council on pollution where they live.

And last month residents from the Lewes Road formed an action group to monitor traffic levels in their area.

Comments(11)

Nigel Noncington says...
2:46pm Sat 10 Oct 09

hippies.

don't live near a main road if you don't like it.

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Philo Beddoe says...
3:07pm Sat 10 Oct 09

And I wonder how many of the residents that are complaining own/use a car!.

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harrys1 says...
4:31pm Sat 10 Oct 09

While we are talking about traffic pollution, could anybody explain to me why the traffic lights are not vehicle activated. I drive a taxi at night and I have to sit at red traffic lights when there is nothing wanting to come through the green light? If you multiply me by about 3 to 4 hundred other taxis that is a lot of pollution that we are pumping out sitting at traffic lights. Also whats happening at the traffic lights at the junction of Coombe Rd & Lewes Rd. by B & Q. There 2 sets of lights about 200 yards apart and to get through both sets in one go you have to take off like Jensen Button. Can anyone come up with an answer?

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On_the_Level says...
5:33pm Sat 10 Oct 09

Jensen Button's not that quick....

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TheInsider says...
5:40pm Sat 10 Oct 09

harrys1. Please report the issue to the police/council highways. There is something wrong with the synchronisation of the lights turning right to enter Coomb Road and I have already reported it as it is a death trap. You get ten seconds for one car to turn right before the traffic exiting Coomb Road onto Lewes Road comes at you. Perhaps The Argus could call the police. It's started happening in the past week or so.

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heavenscentrose says...
5:43pm Sat 10 Oct 09

The reason we have rubbish traffic systems in Brighton and Hove is that the Council farm out their jobs to consultants as the Council officers seem to be incapable of doing the jobs they are so highly paid for. The consultantants have a vested interest to do a reasonably good job, but not good enough that they don't need to be reappointed. So then they come back to continue with their investigations and recommendations, charging their huge fees, which we pick up in our Council tax bills.

I don't think that I am being cynical, rather, I'm being realistic.

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jamusIII says...
6:22pm Sat 10 Oct 09

Ever since they changed the synchronisation of the traffic lights in Hove Street it has been an absolute nightmare. I swear they haven't got a clue what they are doing!!

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quedula says...
7:49pm Sat 10 Oct 09

Synchronisation at the Clock Tower is rubbish too. Pedestrians stand for ages waiting for their green with nothing moving in any direction. Many finally get fed up and cross anyway.

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bibble says...
9:45pm Sat 10 Oct 09

quedula wrote:
Synchronisation at the Clock Tower is rubbish too. Pedestrians stand for ages waiting for their green with nothing moving in any direction. Many finally get fed up and cross anyway.
That includes me. Those lights are a flipping pain in the bum.

Any bright spark who feels like sounding off that it's unsafe to cross contrary to the lights, keep it to yourself. I know how to cross a road safely, with or without lights.

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davyboy says...
10:04am Sun 11 Oct 09

bibble wrote:
quedula wrote:
Synchronisation at the Clock Tower is rubbish too. Pedestrians stand for ages waiting for their green with nothing moving in any direction. Many finally get fed up and cross anyway.
That includes me. Those lights are a flipping pain in the bum.

Any bright spark who feels like sounding off that it's unsafe to cross contrary to the lights, keep it to yourself. I know how to cross a road safely, with or without lights.
just because there is no traffic coming from one way, there may well be from another. the lights at the clock tower control traffic from north st, queens rd, west st and also the exit of western rd. i appreciate that YOU may be able to cross the road by yourself, but there are too many people who are so absorbed in other things, ie mobile phones/i-pods, who really just don't look, or think that traffic will stop for them. i too can cross the road by myself, but to teach my son the CORRECT way, we wait for the green man.

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Alan Stone says...
12:15pm Mon 12 Oct 09

heavenscentrose wrote:
The reason we have rubbish traffic systems in Brighton and Hove is that the Council farm out their jobs to consultants as the Council officers seem to be incapable of doing the jobs they are so highly paid for. The consultantants have a vested interest to do a reasonably good job, but not good enough that they don't need to be reappointed. So then they come back to continue with their investigations and recommendations, charging their huge fees, which we pick up in our Council tax bills. I don't think that I am being cynical, rather, I'm being realistic.
It's not in the online version but the paper reports the council saying it is sending officers, to look again at Carlyle Street.

It's not clear which examples you are citing, but the general principle is that councils will use consultants where it's cheaper - typically cheaper to hire specialised skills for a short period, rather than retaining them in house.

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