ESSEX Highways boss Rodney Bass has promised to keep the character of Lexden Road after new improvement plans were launched.

Speaking at a public meeting, Mr Bass presented six new options for the area after he faced a backlash for trying to introduce a bus lane on the road along with a shared footpath and cycleway.

During the meeting on Wednesday night, which was held at Colchester Royal Grammar School, he outlined plans to:

  •  Ban right turns from London Road into Halstead Road
  •  Cut congestion at the junction of Lexden Road and Straight Road
  •  Bring in a ‘no waiting zone’ between 8am and 7.30pm near the Lexden Crown pub
  •  Scrap a number of zebra crossings in exchange for traffic lights
  • Allow right turns into Lockhart Avenue and create temporary lay-bys for waiting buses
  • Introduce bus waiting areas in Oxford Road with permitted off-peak parking

Mr Bass said he wanted to give the area a new lease of life and tidy it up.

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He added: “It’s a bit cluttered. We want to take away hatched edgings in the middle because they serve as suicide lanes for motorcycles and where appropriate, put double white lines.

“We’re then going to try and deal with this problem of buses, particularly school buses.

“The western end of the road, where we’re dealing with Colchester County High School for Girls and St Benedict’s School, seem to work well because there’s a proper management system, but where buses stand for a period on Lexden Road, it can cause congestion.

“This is why we’re proposing temporary laybys where buses collecting school children can wait.

“The main need arises outside St Mary’s [School], but there are some serious technical reasons I’m told why we can’t go onto that side, although it would be the better option.”

A reduced budget from £2.4million to £1.5million has been earmarked for the scheme from the Local Enterprise Partnership.

Some of this will also be used for resurfacing roads and footways.

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Lexden Road resident Lucy Lavender, 47, challenged the additional lay-by plans, which she said will endanger schoolchildren.

She said: “It’s my understanding any traffic regulation order has to improve the safety of pedestrians, who for all the education in the world will not be paying great attention to road traffic.”

It is hoped final plans will be ready by the end of March 2017.

To view them in full, click here.

  • AVID cyclists said enough is still not being done to encourage people from their cars.

Paul Avison, vice-chair of Colchester Cycling Campaign, said if Highways bosses are to double the number of cycling journeys over the next 10 years - as part of its cycling strategy - they will have to do much more.

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Mr Avison said a “modal shift” is needed so people use more sustainable forms of transport.

But Essex Highways chief, Rodney Bass, said very little is achieved this way.

He said: “It’s a balancing act and where opportunities exist, we’ll try to join up the route and help the cycling strategy.

“But I can’t pretend the mainstream community – shoppers, commuters, visitors into Colchester – will necessarily achieve the idealistic shift we’d like to occur - certainly not until we’ve caught up the infrastructure deficit.”

Another cycleway will be built at the back of Lexden Road and will run from Heath Road and finish at Wellesley Road.

Mr Bass also said the council is doing more for cycling activity than it arguably should.

He added: “We’re investing proportionately to [cycling] trips made, at least twice the rate of cycling activity so we’re on your side.

"But I’ve got the immediacy of trying to deal with Lexden Road."

Stuart Johnson, 50, of Honywood Road, in Lexden, accused the councillor of being unprepared to invest in cycling infrastructure.

He told Mr Bass to “have faith and be visionary”.