The Economist - UK (2019-06-01)

26 Britain The EconomistJune 1st 2019

T

he newtown of Sherford, just east of

Plymouth, is “building futures”, ac-

cording to a large sign at its entrance. They

are futures with a distinctly old-fashioned

look, given that the development is largely

Georgian in style. Much of the town, which

is 10% complete and will in a couple of de-

cades be home to 12,000 people, consists of

terraced houses and mews buildings over-

looking village greens, in contrast to Ply-

mouth’s post-war suburbs of detached

homes in cul-de-sacs. Most quaintly of all,

Sherford has no bypass.

One of the central ideas of British tran-

sport planning, established with the publi-

cation of “Traffic in Towns” by Sir Colin Bu-

chanan, an urban planner, in 1963, is to

separate cars and people. To keep traffic

flowing and preserve peaceful town cen-

tres, planners built bypasses, roads send-

ing motorists speedily around the edge of

towns rather than crawling through them.

People driving into the centre would park

at multi-storey car parks and walk to a pe-

destrianised high-street, sometimes via

underpasses as traffic rumbled overhead.

Now planners are bringing cars and pe-

destrians back together. Sherford is one of

several new towns being designed without

a bypass. Instead, the main road doubles

up as a high street that funnels traffic into

the town rather than round it. Nansledan, a

new extension to Newquay, has no bypass.

And in Lawley, which reaches out from Tel-

ford, engineers have replaced a big round-

about that spun traffic away from the town

with an urban boulevard that draws it in.

Some existing bypasses are being bull-

dozed. A dual-carriageway which took traf-

fic around Ashford, in Kent, has been torn

up. Birmingham’s inner ring-road was

turned into an ordinary street as pedestri-

an underpasses were removed, putting

cars and people back on the same level.

And although a number of new bypasses

have been commissioned by the govern-

ment’s Housing Infrastructure Fund, these

roads are mainly to open up sites for new

developments, rather than steer motorists

away from them.

There are two reasons why the conven-

tional bypass is falling out of favour. One is

a desire to bail out high-street shops,

which are losing business to online retail-

ers and out-of-town malls. In its planning

submission for Sherford, the developer,

Red Tree, argued that “planning policies

and traffic rules have worked against [high

streets] by taking all the uses they provide

and relocating them on the edge of town for

the single benefit of the motorist.” Andrew

Cameron, a transport consultant on the

Sherford project, says he wants to “use the

traffic to support shops and businesses, by

letting it into the town on our terms.” Sher-

ford’s main road has low speed limits and

tight corners to slow down drivers.

The other reason is local opposition.

Some campaigners argue that bypasses

simply open up land for development and

destroy natural habitats (they also ruin the

view). The Shropshire Wildlife Trust re-

cently challenged a detour round Shrews-

bury on the same grounds. Opponents of a

proposed bypass round Hereford claim

that most of the traffic approaching the

town is heading for the centre anyway. By-

passes face ever more roadblocks. 7

SHERFORD

Planners used to keep cars away from

towns. Now they are inviting them in

Urban planning

End of the road

T

he centreof Lancing,anovergrown

village of 19,000 on the south coast of

England, is unremarkable: not the scene

of a retail apocalypse, but not particular-

ly inviting either. In addition to the three

ps—a post office, a Pizza Hut and a pound

shop—the high street is home to a couple

of bookies and a handful of charity

shops. It needs more footfall to stay alive,

says Helen Plant, the parish council

clerk, or administrative head. But for

people to come into the centre, they need

to know it is there, she adds.

Two major roads cross Lancing. The

a27 runs though the northern end. The

a259, a lovely but unloved trunk road

connecting Folkestone with Emsworth,

runs along the coast. Both bypass the

centre. Lancing Council’s strategy was to

commission some branding, put up

some signs off the a259, and make the

place a bit jollier—more “seasidey”, in Ms

Plant’s description—in order to persuade

traffic to pass through rather than by.

One idea was to put up bunting. But

the streetlights are owned by sse, an

energy company, which forbids “any

attachmentsthattether a column”, espe-

cially bunting. Another was to install

flags on the buildings in the village cen-

tre. But that would involve tracking down

every private and public owner and

seeking their permission.

Banners on the streetlights remain an

option, but are expensive and time-

consuming. The lamp posts must be

tested to ensure they can carry the weight

of the banners and won’t topple over in

high winds. The chap who did the tests

for Christmas lights charged £575. A new

test would cost at least as much. And

then there is the three-stage application,

which takes four weeks.

The parish council drew up a brief

and three local graphic designers sent in

ideas. In May the winning slogan was

unveiled on the council’s Facebook page:

it read “Lancing-on-Sea” and “Be at the

centre” set around an illustration of an

idyllic English village. “We now need to

know what yourthoughts are on this

beforethe design is actually put to use,”

the post insisted.

The people of Lancing let their

thoughts be known. One responded, “I

never want to offend but this ‘banner’ is

truly terrible!” Another commentator

noted that it seemed to be missing a

Pizza Hut logo. Most were baffled by the

putative renaming of Lancing as Lanc-

ing-on-Sea. “Unfortunately, it is the

name that people picked up on,” says Ms

Plant, explaining that the “on-Sea” bit

was simply branding, not a formal name-

change. Given the response, “I think

Lancing-on-Sea is a no,” she adds.

Still, the parish council remains

optimistic. There are plans to improve

the road layout and make it friendlier for

pedestrians. An old hotel has been reno-

vated. And the town is trying to create a

“history trail” with blue plaques—if it

can find enough history. “There is noth-

ing of obvious historic value,” says Ms

Plant ruefully. But there are “lots of his-

toric connections”.

Nothingtoseahere

Regeneration

LANCING

The travails of a town trying to tempt traffic

Turn left for the Pizza Hut