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An Alternative to The Widening of Hatchet Road (Part 1)

adam802
Apr 16, 2015
2 min read

Is there an alternative?

Yes. Of course there is.

The obvious answer is to build the Stoke Gifford relief road as a dual carriageway as it was planned to be in the 90’s. – An extension and exact layout as the current Great Stoke Way.

Currently the relief road is being built as a two lane 30mph road in the same vein as Hatchet Road except with properties and shops fronting it. Another ‘High Street’ if you like.

This is why Hatchet Road is to be widened for the MetroBus. Because the council knows the new road will not cope with all the traffic from Almondsbury, Winterbourne, Bradley Stoke and beyond that need to get to North Bristol and the M32.

Because the council knows this, it needs to widen Hatchet Road.

Because it knows this it needs to get buses through a route that will stay congested (Hatchet Road) because the relief road in its present guise will not cope either.

So why doesn’t the council do the following?:

Build the relief road as the two lane (four in total) dual carriageway as an extension to the present Great Stoke Way as it was planned to.
Stop-end the north end of Hatchet Road to buses only. Allowing access to Stoke Gifford from the Ring Road only (and the relief road via Church Road).
Allowing the village to become a quiet lovely place to live, where the locals house prices will soar (think Barnes in London or Puddletown in Dorset).
Allow the Hatchet/Ratcliffe roundabout to be taken out and shops built at the new aligned junction creating a village hub.