Residents say bus lane will make traffic worse
BBCA carer who feels stuck in his own home because of "horrendous traffic" has criticised plans to introduce a bus lane opposite.
James Ross said Chester Road in Sunderland was often backed up because of a busy roundabout at the end of his street.
The city's Labour-run council dropped plans to install signals at the junction with Springwell Road and Holborn Road, claiming it would "increase delays", but said it had been "engaging widely with the public" on its proposals.
But opposition councillors said the authority had "gone back on its word" and had replaced proposals with a bus lane which was "going to be a disaster".
HandoutMr Ross, whose wife Sarah had a stroke three years ago and relies on a wheelchair, said it was already "nigh on impossible" for the pair to leave the home in the car, and said the loss of a lane would worsen traffic.
"You've got to be very tactful... we can often be sat waiting quite a long time," the former nurse practitioner said.
"We've seen this road down to one lane before and the traffic was all the way up, beyond the cemetery on daily occasions.
"To reduce it back down to one lane, the buses are going to be tied up before they get to the bus lane."
He added Sarah avoided crossing the road in her wheelchair to get to a row of shops on the other side of the roundabout, because it did not have traffic lights.
'Been asking for years'
In 2013, the council bid for funding from the Department for Transport to replace the roundabout with a "new traffic signal control junction" but was unsuccessful.
Then in 2023, as part of a Bus Service Improvement Plan, it announced a new plan to replace the roundabout with traffic lights to "improve safety" and "benefit not only buses, but all traffic".
However, it was recently revealed those plans no longer formed part of revised proposals as it wants to turn one of the traffic lanes, leading to the junction, into a bus lane.
Teresa Harris has lived on Chester Road for the past 22 years and said problems with traffic had been an issue for as long as she had lived there.
She said: "It's absolutely ridiculous, it is a busy roundabout and it's one of the main exits out of Sunderland.
"Years, we've been asking for lights on that roundabout.
"As far as I'm concerned the council should be shipped off somewhere else as they obviously don't live in Sunderland."
Wearside Liberal Democrats leader councillor Paul Edgeworth said it was inevitable "queues are going to get even longer" under the proposed plans.
He said the issue was not limited to "rush hour" as he accused the authority of "going back on their promise".
Feedback logged
Sunderland City Council said it was a "particularly complex and busy junction" which "carries a lot of traffic... in peak commuting hours".
It said: "Transport modelling has shown that introducing traffic lights at the roundabout, rather than improving the flow of traffic, would have an adverse effect.
"Traffic lights would significantly increase delays for the majority of highways users and could considerably hinder the reliability of public transport on the corridor.
"Therefore the current proposals have not included traffic lights at the junction."
It added the council was "logging the feedback it has received, aware of the concerns raised and will be considering all matters as it looks to the next steps."