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Temporary city centre traffic lane closure to become permanent

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A trial closure of a lane of traffic in busy city centre street is to be made permanent. Newarke Street had one of its three lanes of traffic shut four months ago as an experiment to see whether the space could be given over to extending the city's 18th century New Walk City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby plans to widen the footway on the north side of Newarke Street to make improvements for pedestrians and cyclists as part of his wider £19 million Connecting Leicester project to revamp the city centre. Officials have monitored traffic flows in Newarke Street and surrounding roads using CCTV and adjusting traffic signal patterns as required. They say, despite some delays at the very start of the trial, problems with weather and road accidents congestion has not increased markedly. Sir Peter said: "Newarke Street is an important city centre route, so we couldn't just press on with plans to reduce the number of lanes without being absolutely clear on what impact it would have. "Officers have been keeping a extremely close eye on this, and we believe that reducing traffic capacity on Newarke Street will not have a negative impact on the transport in the city centre. "This means we can continue with our plans to create a safer and more attractive route for walkers and cyclists, extending the wonderful walk along New Walk's promenade right into the heart of the city centre." The proposed scheme has already successfully attracted £550,000 from the Department for Transport's Cycle Safety Fund. That will fund improvements for cyclists and pedestrians in Newarke Street, Southgates and as part of the plans for Jubilee Square. The pavement will be widened and resurfaced with the same finish as New Walk. A separate cycle lane, surfaced in red asphalt, will run alongside the walkway. Work is due to start on Southgates in July and on Newarke Street in August.

Temporary city centre traffic lane closure to become permanent


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