The A417 Air Balloon Roundabout Trial

The Air Balloon trial is a Highways Agency temporary traffic management alteration of the Air Balloon roundabout at the junction of the A417 and A436, near Birdlip.  The proposal is to make all traffic arriving at the roundabout from the Cirencester direction turn left, down the hill towards Gloucester - people trying to get to Leckhampton will have to use another route.

The Highways Agency believes the advantage of this change is that traffic in both directions on what they regard as the Cirencester – Gloucester road, will have priority at the roundabout and will be able to continue without stopping, hence reducing delays and journey time. 

However, there will be disadvantages for traffic heading towards Cheltenham where journey times will become longer and congestion will be displaced (on to the A436, A 435 and A46).

Whilst the Highways Agency (HA) is responsible for the A417 Air Balloon roundabout as opposed to the County Council, and this will be a Highways Agency led trial the proposals have the support of the Conservative led County Council who have pledged £45,000 towards the cost of the trial. Currently I understand the plan is to trial this closure for an 18 month period.

Gloucestershire County Council has been working with the HA for over 10 years now, looking at feasible improvements to the A417 ‘Missing Link’.  It has been consistently identified by local residents and businesses as one of the most important transport issues for the county council to address.

The idea for this trial came out of a number of stakeholder workshops that the Highways Agency ran in 2010.  At this current time I do not know who these 'stakeholders' were but I was not one of them despite representing an area of Cheltenham which will be significantly adversely affected by the plans.

In the absence of the major scheme (at a cost of £260m) entering the Government’s national road programme, the idea was that a number of smaller scale schemes could be implemented.  The County Council is apparently committed to lobbying to see the major scheme improvement in the Government’s national programme, not much comfort when they are backing a trial which could cause increased journey times and pollution for residents living near the Shurdington Road or Cirencester Road.

The HA intend to implement the Air Balloon trial in 2013. The County Council and other have been pressing to ensure that there will be local engagement prior to the trial taking place – which I understand will now happen.  The HA will also carry out widespread consultation during the trial itself, which will inform longer term decisions regarding the Air Balloon junction.

At a Cheltenham Borough Council meeting next week I am seconding a motion which will ask the Council to oppose the trial and ask for the Highways Agency to reconsider their proposals due to the unacceptable impact on Cheltenham. I am also writing a letter directly to the Highways Agency asking for them to abandon this trial and rethink an alternative which does not affect Cheltenham residents.