New Brighton Red Route Just A "Cash Grab" Says Trader

Traders affected by the new “red route” along London Road, in Brighton, have challenged a senior councillor on its shortcomings.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s new red routes went live on Monday, April 15, making it illegal for traffic to stop on a stretch of the A23 London Road and Preston Road and on the A270 Lewes Road.

Labour councillor Trevor Muten, who chairs the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee, listened to concerns at a London Road Local Action Team (LAT) meeting on Tuesday (23 April) at the Calvary Evangelical Church, in Viaduct Road.

At the start of the meeting Councillor Muten said that the red routes were coming in to reduce congestion and help traffic flow.

He said that buses along both the A23 and A270 were getting stuck behind parked vehicles blocking the busy main roads.

Richard Grills, 48, owner of café bar Presuming Eds, said that he did not recognise the council’s description of congestion in London Road, the main route north out of the city.

Mr Grills said:

“I get deliveries three times a week. They can’t stop outside. There’s three or four tonnes.

“It’s not been thought through. It’s been back-doored. Nothing’s been thought about. Why is it an experiment? It’s not had a public consultation. It’s been sneaky.”

Mr Grills told Councillor Muten that the process felt like a “cash grab” to generate fines.

The council did, however, hold a public consultation from last summer. But Mr Grills and many at the meeting said that they had not received a leaflet about it.

The council said that it sent information about the consultation to 1,475 properties in the London Road area and received 299 responses, with 141 “supportive” and 66 “unsupportive” of the red route.

Kamil Sharobi, 38, owner of Smokemart convenience store, said that fewer people were going down London Road and the businesses were not growing.

Mr Sharobi said:

“We carry a lot of heavy products into the shop. We’ve got a loading bay outside Taj which is only a small loading bay. There are about nine businesses along this stretch, with one small loading bay.

“Over the road they have most of the loading bays. The pavement was extended when covid was around. It was supposed to be a trial period then go back to what it was before but that never happened.”

Mr Sharobi had a petition in his shop during the consultation, with more than 1,000 signatures objecting to the proposals. He was frustrated that the petition never reached councillors.

Councillor Muten offered to meet with business owners, including Mr Grills and Mr Sharobi, to see what could be done to help them with their deliveries.

He said:

“It’s about setting times, working with business and saying, if you have these delivery times and they don’t work for you, we have peak times where the traffic and buses struggle.

“This is something to work with. I’m not promising (anything). I want to say let’s have a further discussion. This is what the consultation is about.”

Councillor Muten said that it was important to make the red routes work well by allowing traffic, particularly buses, to flow.

An extra loading bay is due to be introduced outside Poundland near to M&B Meats after the business raised concerns about deliveries.

A new loading bay was also recently installed outside McDonald’s, along with a motorcycle parking bay.

But staff members at the meeting said that – at six metres long – the loading bay was half the length of the smallest McDonald’s delivery lorry.

Business owners and residents affected by the new red route can submit feedback by emailing [email protected] before Monday, September 30.