Councillors have expressed frustration and concern at the sudden cancellation of the Pulteney Estate Liveable Neighbourhood (LN) project, the second LN to be pulled in 2025, following the abandonment of the Camden Road bus gate earlier this year.
The decision was confirmed in a letter to Bathwick residents, which stated: “It’s been decided that the Pulteney Estate LN – which included a bus gate on Great Pulteney Street and a through-traffic restriction on Sutton Street – is put on an indefinite hold while the benefits of these other active travel schemes in the area are realised.”
No further detail has been given, leaving residents, campaigners and councillors in the dark about the future of the scheme.
Cllr Saskia Heijltjes (Lambridge, Green) said:
“We understood the reasons for the Camden Road bus gate not going ahead, and we supported that decision. But this is different. The Pulteney Estate scheme has been quietly dropped with no clear explanation, despite being designed to make these streets safer, healthier and more liveable.”
The original Liveable Neighbourhoods plan set out 15 areas for delivery, but with the cancellation of the London Road and Snow Hill area LN earlier this year and now Pulteney Estate, only 8 remain. Councillors warn that this loss of momentum risks undermining a programme intended to create safer, healthier communities across Bath and North East Somerset.
With Liveable Neighbourhoods funded through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS), which ends in March 2027, there are now serious concerns about whether enough time remains to deliver the ambitious programme in full.
Councillors from the Green Group say the repeated shelving of schemes highlights a deeper issue: the lack of a properly finalised Movement Strategy and an Active Travel Masterplan with clear, prioritised routes.
“We’ve been calling for a Movement Strategy for years. If we had one, the council would be able to properly coordinate infrastructure changes and avoid these conflicts. Instead, projects are haphazard, priorities are unclear, and well-supported schemes are quietly dropped,” Cllr Joanna Wright (Green Group leader) added.
“We need a plan that works for Bath, one that addresses all the issues. To date, the Lib Dem run council has still not come up with a plan and timeline for a full Movement Strategy for Bath and are disrespectful to those offering practical answers.”
Instead of the original Pulteney Estate LN proposals, the council now plans to implement “soft measures” on St John’s Road, such as traffic calming and signage. But the Green Group warns these won’t meaningfully tackle the core problem: rat-running through Great Pulteney Street and St John’s Road between Bathwick Hill and Bathwick Street.
“These minimal tweaks will make little difference to people’s lives, yet still come with a big price tag. Meanwhile, the underlying issue, car traffic dominating residential and heritage streets, remains unaddressed. The Lib Dem Cabinet members at March’s Full council clearly stated that the M4 to South Coast Study would solve transport issues to the east of Bath, that re-routing lorries to avoid Cleveland Bridge would ease traffic, without explaining that this new route is currently not fit for purpose and will take years to build. Lorries are just a tiny part of the much bigger problem of daily traffic that causes congestion, air pollution, road danger, combined with poor public transport provision across the whole of Bath.”
The councillors are urging B&NES to commit to completing the long-overdue Movement Strategy and to publish a prioritised, deliverable set of Active Travel routes — where there are meaningful public consultations on the delivery of LNs and ensure public money is well spent, not just a long list of possibilities and poor community engagement.