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Transport woes laid bare at public meeting

Edward RoweGloucestershire Political Reporter
News imageBBC The picture has been taken in a school hall. Blue backed chairs are in neat rows. A number of chairs at the front are empty but there are people sitting further back listening to what is been said. BBC
About 60 people attended a meeting organised by the local MP

A public meeting has been held in the Forest of Dean to discuss the region's transport issues.

Members of the public highlighted a number of problems during the meeting - from traffic build-up on the A40 at Highnam towards Gloucester to difficulties getting through Chepstow to Bristol.

Potholes, buses and a third Severn bridge were also highlighted by residents as issues they wanted to discuss.

The event was put on by Forest of Dean Labour MP Matt Bishop with Gloucestershire Highways on the panel to take questions.

One attendee raised the idea of opening the bus lane on the A40 to Gloucester to cars in order to ease traffic flow.

"The road network from Highnam roundabout up to Longford roundabout is the problem - that's where you've got a bottleneck," said Westbury-on-Severn resident Sam James.

Mr Bishop said he would feed back the points to the National Highways which manages the road.

Another audience member, Craig Marston, from Lydney, said he travels to Bristol for work.

"I now need to leave home at about 7am and I get to work for about 08.30am," Mr Marston said. "It is absolutely crazy."

Mr Marston said he believed the solution lay with the construction of another bridge over the River Severn but how that would be funded was not clear as recent estimates showed it would cost about £2bn.

News imageSix people are sitting on chairs on a stage - five men and one woman. In the middle is Matt Bishop, the Forest of Dean MP. To the left of him, in a Christmas jumper, is Roger Whyborn, Liberal Democrat councillor on Gloucestershire County Council. Taking notes on the right of Matt Bishop is his assistant. There is a blue velvet curtain behind the people on the stage as well as a map of the region.
Gloucestershire Highways took questions on everything from potholes to trains and cycleways

For Mollie and Sean, from Cinderford, the issue was rural buses.

They both commute to Gloucester for work with Sean describing it as "an absolute nightmare".

Mollie said: "Sometimes I'm doing five hours of commuting a day on the bus."

Mark Monk, from Bury Hill, bought up concerns around potholes.

Mr Monk wanted to know "why so many potholes that get filled just fall to pieces".

Gloucestershire Highways said they use a pothole mix which is the national standard but encouraged people who know of persistent problems to log them on Fix My Street.

'Lots of angry people'

County Councillor Roger Whyborn, cabinet member for Sustainable Transport and Strategic Highways, said the Forest of Dean was one of the areas "we would like to do more on".

Mr Whyborn said the new Liberal Democrat administration wanted to "get the railways to provide better connections" with more trains - particularly to Bristol.

Mr Bishop said he felt the meeting had gone well.

"I thought overall it went okay," he said.

"There are lots of people here, yes lots of angry people but overall the comments were put in good jest."

He said he hoped to organise another meeting with National Highways and others in charge of transport to find some solutions to the issues raised during the meeting.

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