WHILE there may be other reasons to retain the Woodstore in Elder Place (Argus, Friday), its replacement with offices etc would prevent a possible tiny link road, which would be useful, in removing most traffic from the important London Road shopping area (bus access would be retained). Most councils would leap at the opportunity to greatly improve the environment of this major shopping area, but not this council.

Instead, it is creating schemes, which so often undermine bus services. The Brighton Station scheme has made it horrible for northbound passengers, to catch a bus. The North Street scheme has created extra congestion and pollution problems. And then there is Valley Gardens.

Leaving aside restricting general traffic to a single lane in each direction; the west side was supposed to be buses and local access only. I have seen nothing to support this plan.

The former useful northbound bus lanes have been removed, and southbound are at risk. Northbound traffic will be free to turn left out of North Road, risking considerable congestion problems for buses, as they approach the London Road junction. The revised road design at the Church Street/Marlborough Place junction, will positively encourage motorists to use the ‘bus’ route (rather than Church Street), while removal of previous ‘bus/local access’ road markings, could make the problem worse. No camera stems were seen on the latest design; and even if retained, it would force substantial traffic up unsuitable Trafalgar Street, which is unlikely to continue for long. Again, buses are the loser.

Valley Gardens- stage 3 is not much better. Amongst its many problems, there is insufficient space for buses to stop, or terminate.

I am not looking forward to ‘car free’ day either. A Tuesday in September. While a number of bus disruptive proposals were considered, it looks like entirely closing the main A259 coast road, west of the Aquarium, is the most likely option. While it is at the quieter end of the year, it will still involve closing this major road artery, on a mid-weekday.

The council report suggests that 70 per cent of existing traffic will just disappear into thin air (highly questionable), but I am still worried about the remaining 30 per cent. North Street (and parallel routes) have little spare capacity, especially at their junction with Queen's Road. And that is without the likely additional massive increase in north/south traffic here, caused by the blockage.

Part of car free day should be to encourage bus usage, but the proposal risks causing severe disruption to bus services, which could put off people trying buses in future.

Many councillors claim they support encouraging bus usage; but it is difficult to see this, from their policies. Buses are essential to our city, and for reducing climate change gases.

Peter Elvidge

Wish Road

Hove