The Alliance seeks to help and support Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) Council and West of England Combined Authority (WECA) in the development of transport policy and transport delivery that affect Bath. The Alliance Manifesto is intended to assist with this initiative.
Summarised below is the existing transport policy framework for Bath with links to key policy documents.
WECA is the statutory transport authority for B&NES (including Bath) and has responsibility for developing and delivering the regional Joint Local Transport Plan. B&NES is one of WECA’s three constituent local authorities (along with Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council) and participates in the development and delivery of WECA’s transport policies. North Somerset Council works with WECA as a member of the Combined Authority Joint Committee.
B&NES Council is the Highway Authority for its area and retains responsibility for Bath transport policy and funding that is not within WECA’s remit, including matters such as public realm, traffic movement, air quality, parking, walking and cycling, commercial vehicles, and institutional travel plans.
WECA’s Joint Local Transport Plan 4, approved in March 2020, can be found here. WECA’s Bus Strategy was approved in June 2020. The Alliance’s consultation comments are on this website under the ‘News, Articles and Papers’ tab. See also our blog on WECA’s Bus Service Improvement Plan dated October 2021. WECA also has responsibility for the Key Route Network (highways) and is a primary funding source for transport infrastructure expenditures mainly through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS).
For many years, the Alliance has called for the development of a transport plan as an essential policy framework for the coherent delivery of specific Bath transport initiatives, offering its Manifesto as a guide in developing such a Plan. B&NES has a transport strategy in the form of the ‘The Journey to Net Zero: Reducing the environmental impact of transport in Bath’ , which was approved in 2022. The Alliance supports this plan: our comments can be viewed on the News page, with an accompanying press statement.
B&NES Council has published five other transport-related policy documents:
- ‘Breathe’ – the introduction in 2021 of a Bath Clean Air Zone under which ‘non-compliant’ HGVs, coaches and vans pay a daily charge to enter a defined zone in the centre of Bath. Information on this can be found here. Air pollution has since reduced below the legal limit throughout the city. The existing Bath Air Quality Management Area will be retained until the reduction has been maintained for three years.
- ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’, covering Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, Parking Policy and Electric Vehicle charging. B&NES Cabinet approved a Liveable Neighbourhoods programme in July 2021. In Nov/Dec 2021 the Council expanded on the 12 areas in Bath to be considered first, launching an extensive Public Engagement about these (see ‘Useful links’ on our home page). Implementation on an experimental basis started in 2023. So far, Southlands and Sydney Place have been confirmed; Winifred’s Lane and Circus/Catharine Place are experimental.
- ‘Partial Update to the Local Plan (LPPU)’, which includes much Transport content. The Alliance’s comments were submitted to the Council in October 2021 and are on this website under the ‘News, Articles and Papers’ tab. The LPPU was adopted in January 2023. A composite list of Local Plan documents is listed here .
- ‘Bath City Centre Security – Permanent Access Restrictions‘, with the aim of ‘keeping the city’s streets and spaces safe and secure from the threat of terrorism’, approved by B&NES Cabinet in July 2021. These have now been implemented.
- ‘Major Review of Footpaths’. For footpaths which are public rights of way, Bath was an excluded zone when the Definitive Map of this area was drawn up in 1956. Work in Widcombe and Lyncombe eventually completed this authoritative record of footpaths in 2024, with the exception of some outlying corners on the southern boundaries. Visit: https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/city-bath-definitive-map-project
Through traffic is a key issue for Bath, particularly of HGVs using the A36-A46 route. HGV traffic has been reduced as a result of the imposition of an 18 tonne weight limit on Cleveland Bridge for structural reasons. In March 2025 the National Highways’ Agency proposed, following the M4 to Dorset Coast Strategic Connectivity Study, to make the A350 the Strategic Road Network route from the M4 in place of the A36-A46. This is welcome, although it is not clear when the change will be implemented.
The national Major Road Network (MRN), created in 2018, is a second-tier network of routes. The MRN in Bath comprises London Road, Bathwick Street, Warminster Road and Lower Bristol Road – see the Department for Transport map attached below. All other roads in Bath are local roads under the control of the local Highway Authority (B&NES).
Alongside the transport strategy is the Bath Public Realm and Movement Strategy, an excellent and fully developed plan to upgrade the quality of Bath’s public realm and to redesign movement patterns in the centre of the city. It was approved by B&NES Council in 2010. The PRMS includes an ancillary Bath Pattern Book . Currently there is no comprehensive plan to deliver the PRMS although several ad hoc projects within it have been completed.
Updated March 2025
DfT map – the National Strategic Road Network and Major Road Network in Bath
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