Town council wants more information about bus gate plans and enforcement outside Biggleswade Railway Station

When is a gate not a gate? When it apparently is labelled a bus gate, as Biggleswade town councillors learned after attempting to solve the mystery.

A bus gate is planned for the town’s railway station interchange to prevent private vehicles parking in an area close to the building.

But a letter from Central Bedfordshire Council outlining the proposals with a map lacked details about the gate and how the no entry zone would be enforced, a town council meeting heard.

The correspondence from CBC’s assistant director of highways Gary Powell described the bus gate’s purpose as:

• to avoid danger to people or other traffic using the road or to prevent the likelihood of any such danger arising;
• and to facilitate the passage on the road of pedestrians, cyclists and public transport vehicles and to prevent its use by other traffic.

“A traffic order for ‘No entry except buses’ would be introduced at the interchange in Station Road.”

Mayor Mark Foster told a town council meeting: “It’s been established it’s a theoretical bus gate and not a proper gate, so this is a white lining exercise.”

Councillor Madeline Russell asked: “Have we actually established it’s white lining and how will it be enforced? I haven’t seen anything that says exactly what it’s going to be.

“We need to know because either it’s very intrusive if enforced by cameras or cumbersome if it’s an actual gate. If it’s signage and white lines, there’s the enforcement issue.

“Is it going to be rising bollards? We also don’t know why this is relevant now. The bus interchange isn’t even in use yet.“

Deputy mayor Mark Knight said: “This wasn’t part of the original (interchange) design. The transport exchange hasn’t opened yet. It’s not even clear to me whether this is necessary.

“We don’t know if there’s a problem. There’s not enough detail here in terms of enforcement. The name gate suggests some physical barrier.

“We should ask CBC for more detail and whether the interchange should operate for a period of time before it considers changes.”

Town councillor Duncan Strachan said: “The idea of introducing a bus gate is misleading. The letter is saying the area coloured blue isn’t to have any private vehicles on it, except buses.

“It’s very poorly proposed and should be explained clearly. Bus gate is a phrase planners might be aware of, but the rest of the population comprising 99.9 per cent of it wouldn’t have a clue.”

CBC Independent Biggleswade West councillor Hayley Whitaker updated the meeting saying: “You’re right in that it’s not an actual gate.

“If people start parking in that area it would stop any buses accessing the station. That’s the rationale for doing it. How it would be enforced I agree isn’t in this document.”

Councillors unanimously agreed to make no further comment until more information is provided by CBC.

Comments on the bus gate should be emailed to [email protected] by August 18th.

The scheme will be considered at a CBC traffic management meeting in due course.