The North Route would run from the city centre to a large park and ride car park to be built on the Bodington playing fields. A new bus lane would be built between Rampart Road and Clarendon Road adjacent to the inbound lane of the A660. This would involve either (a) the loss of the grass verge and York stone pavement, or if people prefer (b) the new road running over Monument Moor on the other side of the grass verge. Option (b) exists because of local sensitivity about losing the avenue of trees. There’s no plan to knock down any of the buildings opposite the university. If you’re wondering what the point is of having a massively wide road on one side of the Clarendon Road junction, when there’s a very narrow road on the other, it’s so that traffic queues can be stored on the Moor. This would be achieved by altering the timing of the lights.
The florist’s shop and the shops to either side of it at Hyde Park Corner would be demolished. NGT would then run up the existing highway as far as the Elinor Lupton Centre. A new road would be built over the field opposite the Elinor Lupton Centre. This would run between the telephone exchange and Headingley Hall, and then behind the Arndale Centre, coming out onto Shaw Lane.
There would be additional road widening at various points along Otley Road.
The entrance to Weetwood Lane beside the Three Horse Shoes would be blocked off and the area beside the pub pedestrianised.
From the Lawnswood roundabout to the Bodington park and ride, there would be a new bus lane located in the central reservation for the sole use of the trolley buses.
The stated aim of the scheme is to create an improved public transport system using dedicated bus lanes wherever possible. But if that’s the aim, then it could be achieved by creating dedicated bus lanes within the existing highway.
It’s worth noting that the scheme will affect Woodhouse Moor in an almost identical manner to the scheme proposed by Highways at the end of last year. At that time, we were told that the road widening was necessary to facilitate a pedestrian crossing on Clarendon Road. The only difference with the current scheme, is that if people object to losing the avenue of trees and York stone pavement, the Highways Department are prepared to spare the trees and build the new bus lane on Monument Moor.