Controversial Exeter bus lane hours changed

'Listen to the traders'

A bus lane through a busy Exeter shopping street will be scaled back after warnings it could create a ‘ghost town’.

The city’s traffic and highway orders committee originally considered opening the lane in Fore Street, Heavitree for 12 hours a day, six days a week, but scaled back plans in response to a public consultation.

Instead, the bus lane will operate from 7am to 10am and from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays only.

Campaigner Ian Frankum handed in petitions totalling 2,300 signatures warning that having the bus lane operational for 12 hours a day would cause major problems.

“Have we learned nothing from the mistakes of the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods procedure?” he asked, referring to the Heavitree traffic project which was abandoned earlier this year amid accusations of insufficient consultation.

“The Heavitree community is losing faith and confidence in local democracy. Listen to the traders. Their livelihoods are at stake today.”

Traders addressing the meeting asked why the council originally wanted the bus lane to be in force on Saturdays and pleaded for concessions on loading and parking.

Suzanne Selley of the Heavitree Traders Association said: “If the bus lane is in effect, Heavitree will become a ghost town.”

However, transport campaigner Edward Pickering said the COP29 climate change summit, which began this week, gave people the chance to ‘think global, act local’. He said not having the bus lane operating until 4pm would stop it being used by school transport.

“Not for the first time, you are completely ignoring the needs and voices of young people,” he told committee members. “Fore Street needs a 12-hour bus lane. You are designing a transport system for Exeter’s future, and you are nowhere near hitting your targets.

“You need to show courage, leadership and ambition.”

Stagecoach South West managing director Peter Knight said buses are the ‘lifeblood’ of the local economy, but while the company would have preferred the 12-hour option, it recognised the need for a solution that worked for all.

Exeter city councillor Duncan Wood (Lab, Pinhoe) added: “We are stuck with nineteenth century roads trying to meet twenty-first century demands. It’s a rock and hard place: the things we need to achieve as a city versus how we get there, and the crippling impact it will have on our own residents.”

After a debate lasting well over three hours, members voted to have the bus lane in operation for three hours in the morning and three in the late afternoon, on Mondays to Fridays only.