Southampton councillor funding loss if Portswood Broadway scheme axed

Southampton City Council has faced mounting pressure to drop its scheme to close the route to all vehicles except buses, taxis, and pedestrians.

The opposition Tory party has also slammed the proposal, which many people say will harm business.

READ MORE: Hundreds say Portswood closure would make area more attractive

The plans were discussed in last Thursday’s (February 2) Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee meeting (OSMC).

Transport boss, Cllr Eamonn Keogh said he still ‘passionately believes’ in the scheme.

He warned that if the council ‘scrapped’ the plans, it would risk losing millions of pounds in funding money.

He said that about £4.5 million would be at risk with Portswood Broadway alone and £18 million for the whole corridor scheme if plans were to be cancelled.

Furthermore, Southampton could be less favoured for future government funding.

Cllr Keogh said: “One of the reasons we were able to secure that funding was because of step change.”

READ MORE: New development in battle to prevent closure of Portswood 

‘Step change’ is the name given for what the Department for Transport (DfT) wants to see concerning transport and is heavily centred around improving ‘active travel’ – walking, cycling and taking the bus.

“The difficulty that we do have is that if we don’t have that bus priority in Portswood Broadway,  there is a risk we would have to give that money back to the DfT.

“[The] scheme was being driven by principles that were being set out by the DfT.

“This is the difficulty we face ourselves. We want to improve our transport network and we can’t do that as a city on our own. We need that funding," Cllr Keogh added.

Councillor David Fuller, chairman of the OSMC questioned Cllr Keogh on his priorities.

READ MORE: Portswood Broadway: Protest petition to be debated by council 

Cllr Fuller said: “If [the] second consultation comes back and is clearly against some of these proposals, even if it puts this money at risk, how do you feel about that?

“Are you more interested in getting this money from the central government even if it is for something people don’t want or are you more interested in listening to the local people?"

Cllr Keogh responded by saying: “I think what I’m trying to ensure is that we get that investment into the city and at the same time we are able to have that conversation with residents and to set the case out as to why this scheme will be good for everyone in the long run.

“We do want to get to a city where people can travel around in a safe, attractive and accessible way. We do want to encourage that active travel because that’s good for health and wellbeing and will help to get to net zero.”

READ MORE: Plans for Portswood Broadway 'likely to fail'

Cllr Fuller replied to the Cllr Keogh’s statement by saying that the purpose of a consultation isn’t to persuade residents to think a certain way, but to listen to their views.

Many residents went to the meeting on Tuesday to voice their concerns.

One of these was Crispin Jameson, who spoke of the ‘evils’ the development could bring.

Concerning the scheme, he called for the council to ‘rip it up and start again’.

One resident raised the issue of what would happen if an emergency event blocked Thomas Lewis Way - which runs parallel to Portswood Road.

However, Wade Holmes, the council’s service manager for integrated transport, said that an action plan had not yet been thought of.

Mr Holmes said: “It’s been pretty clear in the consultation that it floods on a regular basis, crashes on a regular basis – that blocks the main artery.

“We acknowledge that we don’t have a management plan for those scenarios and we now need to. From the consultation feedback people have raised it as an issue. We’ve flagged that as a thing we need to do. We need to come up with an emergency mitigation plan for Thomas Lewis Way.

“Take advantage of the new vehicle signage that we’ve put on the corridor; ‘ten minutes to get in the city but if there is a crash it can say take an alternative route’.

“We need to come up with that strategy to convince the Cabinet Member, council and the public that Thomas Lewis Way can handle extra traffic even in an emergency situation.”

At the closing of the meeting, recommendations were made to recognise the strength of feeling and opposition to the closure and come up with alternative proposals.

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