South Gloucestershire Council is set to reinstate normal traffic movements at Hambrook Junction on the A4174, following confirmation from the Government\u2019s Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU) that air quality at the site has met national standards for two years running.<\/p>\n
A recent letter from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to the Council acknowledges the successful improvement in local air quality and confirms that Hambrook Junction is no longer required to operate under the Ministerial Direction in place.<\/p>\n
The Ministerial Direction was issued after a national assessment identified the A4174 Ring Road at Hambrook as a location requiring action to reduce roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO\u2082) levels. To achieve compliance, the Council implemented several changes in 2019, including:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Removing the right turn from the westbound A4174 onto the B4058
\n\u2022 Removing the right turn from the B4058 (Frenchay) onto the A4174
\n\u2022 Removing the straight ahead movement when leaving Frenchay on the B4058<\/p>\n
Since then, the Council has closely monitored NO\u2082 levels by the A4174 Ring Road between the M32 and Bromley Heath roundabouts. Initially, monitoring data was significantly affected by reduced traffic volumes during the Covid 19 pandemic, so it did not provide a true representation of the usual traffic flows.<\/p>\n
The latest Air Quality Assessment of the 2024 monitoring data undertaken by JAQU, shows that roadside NO\u2082 levels in the area have met the national standards. This represents the second year of compliance, following compliance already achieved in 2023, enabling the Government to formally revoke the Ministerial Direction in place.<\/p>\n
With two years of compliant data now verified by the Government, the Council will move to reinstate normal traffic movements at the junction and coordinate this with resurfacing work due to take place on the A4174 in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
South Gloucestershire Council\u2019s Cabinet Member for Communities and Local Place, Councillor Sean Rhodes, said: \u201cI am delighted that air quality has continued to improve at Hambrook Junction and that we have now been officially released from the Ministerial Direction. We know how significant this junction is for road users, residents and local communities, and we have listened carefully to the concerns raised about the measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognise they have caused inconvenience and we have worked hard behind the scenes to secure clear direction from the Government on this matter. Now that the Ministerial Direction has been lifted, we can remove the measures while continuing to closely monitor air quality so we can strike the right balance between traffic flow and environmental considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work to reopen the junction is expected to be completed by 27 April. The Council will continue to closely monitor NO\u2082 levels across the area as part of its Local Air Quality Management responsibilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Gloucestershire Council is set to reinstate normal traffic movements at Hambrook Junction on the A4174, following confirmation from the Government\u2019s Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU) that air quality at the site has met national standards for two years running. A recent letter from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[591],"tags":[2754],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26150,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26145\/revisions\/26150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}