Scarborough used to have four main arteries into the town which always gave the right impression to visitors as they approached the resort – Stepney Road, Scalby Road, Burniston Road and, of course, Filey Road.
Not any more. Filey Road is now a m
aze of ugly black poles and is about to have all the accompanying traffic lights, railings and road markings which go with them. It is to have traffic channelled into two narrow lanes where it will be impossible to overtake a cycle with a car going out of town. The other lane, the bus lane, will of course be empty, as will most of the park and ride buses using it once the “rush” has gone.
When the holiday parks are closed and the town’s visitors are gone we will still have to put up with all this visual pollution and for what? It won’t help us, the people who live here and who will have to put up with driving through 10 sets of traffic lights from Northway to Wheatcroft every time we come and go.
The bus lay-bys have gone and now the bus stops are back on the highway, more congestion. Where the lay-bys were there are now pedestrian crossing places, surely they could have been placed anywhere and the lay-bys left in place.
It is only a couple of years ago that centre refuges were put in between Wheatcroft and Queen Margaret’s Road and now they have all been taken out. What happened to a long-term plan for this area and, more to the point, how much of our money has been wasted.
This traffic scheme will not work, Filey Road is not an artery of a large city, this is Scarborough, a medium sized seasonal holiday resort. For eight months of the year there is hardly any traffic on Filey Road other than the morning and evening rush hours.
The council will say that this new scheme is working, that is because they will have full control over the vehicles using the road, but they also will be responsible for all of the extra carbon and noise pollution from unnecessary standing traffic.
What a shame that we can’t recover our extra fuel costs which we will have to pay after being forced to wait at traffic lights when there are no other vehicles anywhere to be seen.
The same happens at all the town’s traffic lights during the night. Some call this progress; I call it stupidity and ‘Big Brother’ tactics.
Keith Kitching
Filey Road, Scarborough
The full article contains 446 words and appears in Scarborough Evening News newspaper.
