Bridge Street will close to traffic

8:10am Friday 8th August 2008

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MOTORISTS will be banned from lower Bridge Street at weekend evenings as part of a tough anti-social behaviour crackdown in the town centre.

But the closure decision was tainted when half of the councillors sitting on Warrington Borough Council’s traffic committee refused to vote.

The plans were approved two to one in favour as councillors Jill Bolton, Les Hoyle and Bill Brinksman abstained from the vote that has left taxi drivers angry.

Under the proposals taxi drivers would also be banned from using the taxi ranks during Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from 9pm until 5am.

At a tense traffic committee meeting last Thursday around 50 taxi drivers voiced their objections saying that the closure was a threat to their livelihoods.

Under the scheme taxi ranks would be moved to other locations around the town centre.

Mr Hussain, a taxi driver, said: “For us as taxi drivers our main point of business is Bridge Street. To block off Bridge Street would take away massive revenue.

“It’s a gamble with someone’s salary. You could say if we moved these ranks business could still be the same but we could say the ranks have been there for 30 years, let’s try it bit by bit and move them to an adequate location.”

But Cheshire Police believes that the move will help them police the area better.

Inspector Richard Reeves, from the town centre neighbourhood policing unit, said: “We would be able to remove some of the resource from the lower Bridge Street area and they would be able to operate in that area more safely. The aim is to make the area safer and the only possible action is to remove the vehicles.”

Councillors were shown CCTV footage of the area around Bridge Street, which included drunken people walking out into the road in front of traffic and overflowing taxi ranks causing police and ambulance vehicles to struggle to get through.

Drivers and business owners including Paul Bond, the owner of Darli Bar, complained that they had not been properly consulted over the plans.

They even put forward ideas like using barriers to stop people walking in the street and making the road a one-way system for those times.

Despite not voting on the matter Clr Jill Bolton said: “I personally have not heard any convincing arguments as to why we are not trying something a little more modest like a one-way system.

“These taxi drivers are experienced in driving in these conditions and I am sure they drive very safely.”

An application for the road closure will now be made by the council to bring in the measures in the next few months.