Travel plan promises wider paths and new bus lane

People in Leeds have been giving their views on plans to improve a major route connecting the city centre with St James’s Hospital.

A public consultation has been launched into the proposals, with Leeds City Council saying it wanted to speed up bus journey times and make walking and cycling more accessible.

A new bus lane, cycle track, wider footpaths and upgraded crossings are included in the plans to upgrade Burmantofts Street and Beckett Street, as well as the neighbouring Lincoln Green, Richmond Hill and Harehills areas.

While one local resident told the BBC he thought the planned dedicated bus lane was “not a good idea”, another believed it would make bus travel “easier and quicker”.

Proposals for the scheme, being developed by Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, include widening pavements outside St James’s Hospital’s Bexley Wing.

The scheme would also see the creation of a 24-hour bus lane from Burmantofts Street to St James’s Hospital, along with a two-way protected cycle track running along Burmantofts Street and Beckett Street.

New cycle and pedestrian crossings would also be installed in the area, according to Leeds City Council.

The scheme would make the area “more pedestrian-friendly, accessible and easier to cross”, officials said.

Meanwhile, bus journeys would be “quicker and more reliable”, with the whole area becoming “safer for everyone, reducing the number and risk of collisions”, they added.

Leeds City Council said that between 2017 and 2023 there were 67 reported casualties along the route, including 12 serious collisions and one pedestrian fatality.

Victor Brier, 44, who said he had used the bus route from the city centre to St James’s Hospital for about 30 years, said he thought the area under scrutiny already had “plenty of paths and plenty of roads”.

He told the BBC he thought the dedicated bus route was “not really a good idea”.

“A lot of buses go that way anyway, so what’s the point of spending money that doesn’t need spending? It’s just a waste,” he said.

“There are plenty of paths and plenty of roads, to be fair. Do something for the homeless instead, that’s more important than a road.”

However, Angela, who said she regularly travelled by bus from the city centre to St James’s Hospital, said: “A new route just for buses is a good idea. It’d be easier and quicker.”

If the new plans got the go-ahead, it would allow her and her mother to “come out more often, knowing we could get a bus”, she said.

Meanwhile, Oakley Franks, who said he took a bus from the city centre past St James’s every day, said the route was currently “very busy going past the hospital”.

He said the proposal to invest in a new bus lane would make it “easier for buses to get through, because there’s usually a backlog of all the different buses that go up there”.

“I’d walk if the route was more accessible,” he added.

A previous consultation held in 2019, which focused on improvements for bus and cycle users in the area, had received “overall support”, a spokesperson for Leeds City Council said.

The authority had now received government funding to develop and deliver the scheme which would “make it easier and safer to travel along Burmantofts Street and Beckett Street, in greener and healthier ways”, they added.

The consultation into the proposals was due to close on 8 October, and if the plans were approved, construction would begin in autumn 2025, Leeds City Council said.

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