Western Road now due to reopen on Tuesday and Wednesday, not this weekend

Western Road between Holland Road and Montpelier Road should start reopening on Tuesday 10 November and be fully open on Wednesday 11 November, Brighton & Hove City Council^1,3,4 said on Friday. It had been due to reopen this weekend.

The council says the reconstruction and resurfacing itself finished on schedule. A protest about the red route on Thursday evening stopped the last of the work and pushed the reopening back. The new dates depend on that work being finished.

Until then the closures and diversions stay. Brighton & Hove Buses²’ service updates page still gives 9 November as the end of its Western Road diversion, but the council says diversions remain until the road reopens. While they last, buses can’t serve Norfolk Square or Brunswick Place in either direction, and the nearest stops are Palmeira Square and Waitrose. Route 21 skips the Montpelier Road stop. The 49 turns at Imperial Arcade and starts again from Churchill Square, and the 1X can’t serve Churchill Square towards Mile Oak.

Around 700 buses use this stretch every day, the council says. Councillor Bella Sankey, leader of the council, thanked “the teams of public servants and contractors who have worked incredibly hard to get us to this point”.

Once the resurfacing is done, the Western Road red route comes in. The council says it is designed to tackle illegal and anti-social parking. It starts under an experimental order, so people can comment on how it works while it’s running. Our red route story has the order’s reference number and the other ways to comment.