HRA E-News May 2025 – Good News Edition: The Bus-gate Suspension Announcement
Posted by Highfield Residents' Association on May 15, 2025 in News | 0 comments
HRA E-News May 2025
Good News Edition
The announcement
Councillor Keogh, Cabinet Member for the Environment and Transport, Southampton City Council, announced in a full council meeting yesterday that the Portswood Bus-gate restrictions were to be temporarily suspended as soon as possible. From today the Broadway will be open to normal traffic without any restrictions or fines.
There is no clear information at the moment over what will happen next but be assured that Highfield Residents Association will be protecting the interest of members. Councillor Keogh indicated there would be engagement with local residents to develop a scheme that has broad community support in order to proceed. He acknowledged and thanked residents for all of the feedback they had made in order for the council to make the decision to suspend.
Thank you HRA Members for all the comments, emails, police reports and photographs which have helped to record the first months of the Trial.
It seems that the three month independent monitoring report, which Councillor Keogh said would be published this week, would highlight the negative and detrimental impact of the Trial and whole scheme against the agreed aims. He did report some positives in improved bus journey times and footfall.
In response to a question from a Councillor about whether a Bus-gate was a precondition to a future scheme, Councillor Keogh confirmed that at this point no decisions were being made [about a future scheme] but at this stage,
“…. what’s important now is that we are going to go back to those local communities …. at this point we are not going to commit on the sum of money that is available but there is a sum of money that is available for future works. I think at this point we are not making any decisions. It’s important that we engage with those local communities and understand what their views are.
At this stage we are not making any preconditions.”
Councillor Keogh, Full Council Meeting in response to questions 14/05/25
HRA will be seeking to work positively with neighbouring RAs and SCC directly or via its Steering Group membership, to influence and support a design to improve Portswood and meet the Council’s broad objectives without any detriment to our community.
So this is good news – phew!
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