Confused Looks From Drivers As Council’s City Centre Traffic Trial Takes Off

By Mark Stead

Drivers were today exchanging puzzled glances as Cardiff’s city centre road closures came into force.

St Mary Street was closed to traffic from 6am as part of an experiment to cut congestion in the city. And that meant motorists today had to find a new route through Cardiff city centre, amid fears that the moves would create traffic chaos.

Cardiff council’s scheme has prevented drivers from turning right from Havelock Street into Wood Street – and has stopped them accessing the lower part of St Mary Street.

Havelock Street, in front of the Western Mail & Echo offices, has also become one-way from the direction of the bus station.

Claire Saralis, head of policy for Cardiff’s Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the experimental closure. She said: “We see this very much as part of an overall package of measures to improve the quality of the environment in the city centre. However the road closure on its own will not be enough to achieve that. We would like to see a regeneration of the area around Cardiff’s bus and rail stations including a convention centre to attract high value tourism.”

The closures have caused controversy among drivers and businesses, with an army of council officials out in force to conduct traffic this morning.

But they could not prevent people looking confused at the changes as they headed into the city this morning.

Rebecca Avci, 27, runs the Atlantic Coffee Shop in St Mary Street said: “Many people didn’t realise the closures were starting today. I don’t think it has been advertised very well.”

Phillip Dobbinson, 47, a civil servant from Barry, said: “I imagine this will cause a lot of difficulty, not just for me, but for hundreds of drivers.”

Helen Williams, 30, a mortgage adviser from Michaelston-y-fedw, said: “I suppose this makes sense but it is going to take me longer to travel every day.”

Briony Matthews, 24, a shop assistant from Trealaw, Rhondda, said: “I think these changes are really confusing.”

However, council worker Jackie Reynolds, 37, from Whitchurch, Cardiff, backed the changes, saying: “It’s like a Sunday morning. I think this will encourage people to come into the city centre by foot.”

The scheme has been designed as an experiment, but could be made permanent with wider pavements and new paving put in after April next year.

Councillor Elgan Morgan, executive member for transport, said: “We are doing this for a period to identify any problems.

“If the trial is a success, we will make it permanent, with changes including wider pavements. We will work on further changes based on our research.” Business man’s cab turned away: Taxi drivers today criticised Cardiff’s roads shake-up after an angry passenger was left stranded.

The furious businessman faced missing his flight from Cardiff International Airport after the cab he ordered was turned away from St Mary Street by council officials.

Paul Dummett, manager of Llanedeyrn-based St David’s Cars, whose firm was unable to pick up the passenger from the Sandringham Hotel in Cardiff city centre, says taxi drivers had not been properly informed about the changes.

“We didn’t know we were not allowed to use St Mary Street – and because of this, we feel we’ve let a customer down,” he said.

“I think this whole business has been badly handled. We were given no official notification at all.”

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