Have sense of déjà vu

About 10 years ago, I was on the traffic advisory panel of the Keighley Town Council watch and transport committee, and I was tasked to produce a draft ‘one-way system’ for consideration by the committee.

I took advice from a number of people, including the chairman of the committee, and devised a scheme that, broadly speaking, made North Street one-way north and Bradford Road one-way south. I was told this was the traditional route followed by heavy goods vehicles coming in laden on Bradford Road and leaving empty on North Street.

The Transdev representative on the committee immediately objected that the bus route into Bingley (and Bradford) was its most used route, so Bradford Road could not be one-way south. I commented that Piccadilly in London, running towards Hyde Park Corner, has a contraflow bus lane, which works wonderfully well, but my remarks were ignored.

We, as a committee, then came up with a ‘mini-scheme’ to make East Parade one-way towards Hanover Street, with no parking allowed on either side, Hanover Street one-way to Cavendish Street and Cavendish Street one-way towards East Parade. This scheme was not approved by Bradford, which later took over the role of the traffic advisory panel, but the East Parade one-way had worked very well indeed when major roadworks were undertaken several years after.

Now, 10 years later, a scheme is proposed that includes Gresley Road (at an additional cost of £7 million) and the Worth Valley shopping centre scheme. I doubt whether any progress will be made on this until the proposed shops/restaurant/cinema complex exists.

I would be interested to see if anyone shares my views.

MARTIN WALKER Wood View Road, Oakworth