Western Road becomes a red route on 9 November, and you can comment until May

Western Road becomes a red route on Monday 9 November. From then, no vehicle may stop or wait at any time on either side of the road between Holland Road and Montpelier Road, except in the new loading and disabled bays. Brighton & Hove City Council^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8} made the order on 15 October as an experiment, and anyone can comment on it until 9 May 2027.

The double yellow lines become double red lines, which the council can enforce with CCTV cameras. The council says there will be 10 loading bays, 140 metres of loading space in all, on both sides of the road, including near York Road, Bedford Place, Norfolk Square and Borough Street. There are four Blue Badge parking bays on Western Road itself, and the council has said more disabled bays will go in on the side streets.

Some stops are still allowed on the red lines. A Blue Badge holder can get in or out, and so can taxi and private hire passengers, as long as the vehicle couldn’t reasonably stop in another road. Buses can stop at bus stops. Bin lorries and emergency vehicles are exempt, and so are vehicles working on the road or on the buildings beside it, including scaffolding and glazing deliveries.

Why

The council’s statement of reasons calls Western Road “a key transport corridor carrying significant volumes of bus, cycle, pedestrian and general vehicular traffic”. It says the main gain should be quicker, more reliable bus journeys. It also expects less stopping and parking in the road, and fewer cars blocking the view at junctions and crossings. Councillor Trevor Muten, the Labour cabinet member for transport, said around 700 buses use the corridor every day.

More than a thousand people answered the council’s consultation last year. Half of them thought the scheme would make the area safer, and 56% thought it would keep traffic moving. The red routes on Lewes Road, London Road and Preston Road, introduced in April 2024, saw a 39% fall in slight and serious injuries in their first year, according to council figures.

The catch

Plenty of people don’t want it. In July, Real Patisserie’s managing director, Alastair Gourlay, gave the council a petition against the red route signed by 3,800 people, as Brighton and Hove News⁹ reported. He told councillors that accidents on Western Road had fallen in the past three years, and questioned whether the red route would speed up buses. Cabinet approved the scheme on 17 September. The council first said it would arrive in the summer.

How to have your say

Because it’s an experiment, the red lines go down first and the council decides afterwards whether to keep, change or scrap them, using what people tell it. The order can’t run for more than 18 months.

Send comments by 9 May 2027 through the council’s online form, by email to TROcomment@brighton-hove.gov.uk, or by post to the TRO team at Hove Town Hall. Quote TRO-21-2026, and say which part you support or object to and why.