Monnow Street
Published: 10 September 2020
Recently Monmouth Town Council has become aware of residents’ and business owners’ concerns regarding the new layout of Monmouth Town Centre, particularly the one-way system. As a result, a meeting has taken place between Monmouth Town Council and Roger Hoggins, one of the officers leading matters for Monmouthshire County Council.
Town Councillors were given the opportunity to put forward the comments they had received from their Ward residents, both positive and negative, and their personal views of the situation.
In response, Mr Hoggins told Members that he agreed that the recent traffic congestion was unacceptable and as a result the traffic lights on the new Monnow Bridge have been changed in the hope of alleviating the problem. Furthermore, a Traffic Officer will be present to monitor the flow of traffic so, if needs be, further changes to the traffic lights can be made. Mr Hoggins suggested that the “back to school” traffic will be the true test of the system and whilst the changes to the traffic lights will hopefully offer a solution, the traffic congestion in Monnow Street would be a major issue if it could not be alleviated.
In terms of the one-way system, this is still being trialled and no decisions have yet been taken about how traffic will be managed in Monnow street in the long term. Mr Hoggins confirmed that the barriers will be replaced with bollards soon which will hopefully help the aesthetic of the town. MCC have received Welsh Assembly funding to study the new layout options and to consider the future of Monnow Street. As the study progresses the ideas for Monnow Street will be put to public consultation for feedback before any final decision is made. However, Mr Hoggins was clear in stating that the traffic congestion and parking will both be major issues to be considered in the study in the coming months.
In terms of the new cycle lane on Monnow Street, these will be retained at least during the one-way trial but with road markings as opposed to barriers. This will hopefully assist in ensuring improved disabled bay parking.
Mr Hoggins has provided Monmouth Town Council with a drawing of the layout for Monnow Street which includes short stay parking and disabled bay parking. This drawing can be seen below.
