Mayor Election 2016 / News
‘I’ll take control of M32’ – Charles Lucas
Conservative mayoral candidate Charles Lucas has promised to take the M32 into the hands of the council and open the hard shoulders to more traffic.
Lucas is aiming to “detrunk” the motorway which is currently controlled by Highways England so he can ease congestion at rush hours.
He would need to negotiate with Government to make the change. The last attempt to have the motorway detrunked was under a Labour council in 2007.
Lucas told Bristol24/7: “If we can detrunk the M32 and turn it into a three-lane road by taking away the hard shoulder it would make a huge difference.
“A three-lane express way into the heart of Bristol, and that coupled with improvement to the network at the bottom would greatly improve traffic in and out of the city. People don’t want to sit in a traffic jam.”
He compared the arrival at end of the M32 with the welcome that train passengers get when they pull in at Temple Meads to see the derelict former Royal Mail sorting office.
He said: “At the moment you drive down a motorway, you go over the roof of a superstore and a Swedish furniture store and you end up coming down in between some scruffy advertising hoardings and eventually you see the backside of a multi-storey car park and three sets of traffic lights. It’s not very good, is it? I want to change that.”
Long-held plans to detrunk the M32 were withdrawn by Government in 2007 after the Highways Agency (now Highways England) decided the road had become too important.
Current delays on the M32 outbound are due to the construction of a bus-only lane and new bridge for the MetroBus project. A temporary 40mph speed limit is also currently in place due to corroded barriers.
Read more: Interviews, videos and opinion pieces with all the candidates
Bristol24/7 is hosting a mayoral hustings featuring all candidates at The Lantern at 7pm on Thursday, April 28. Entrance is first come first served. For more information, visit www.colstonhall.org/shows/mayoral-hustings/
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