New Sydney Place
Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN)

What is an LTN?

Objectives for an LTN

• Improve air quality and respond to the climate emergency.


• Improve public realm and quality of life, creating better places for residents, businesses and visitors, as well as sympathetically accommodating emerging EV infrastructure requirements.


• Enable more local trips by active modes of travel and public transport, through providing easy, safe and comfortable routes within neighbourhoods in line with the wider public health outcomes.


• Reduce the impact of “rat-running” vehicles along unsuitable residential roads, to support prosperity and improve community connectivity, whilst safeguarding access for residents and the needs of mobility-impaired people.

Why a New Sydney Place LTN?

• The proposed New Sydney Place LTN is located in a residential area and is bordered by a main road.


• New Sydney Place is in very close proximity to several tourist attractions and heritage assets, including Sydney Gardens, The Holburne Museum, and the Kennet and Avon Canal.


• The proposed LTN would allow New Sydney Place to become seamlessly integrated with Sydney Gardens, as was the original intention when the terrace was built in 1808.


• Ongoing traffic-related problems in the area include rat-running (increasing numbers of vehicles using Sydney Road and not the main A36) and non-compliance with the 20mph speed limit and the 7.5-tonne weight limit.


• Vehicles operating in excess of the weight limit have been found to directly cause significant damage to infrastructures and heritage assets including Grade I listed residences, partly due to the unusual height of the vaulted Georgian structures beneath the westbound carriageway.


• There is currently a lack of safe crossing points for pedestrians, and the pavements outside Sydney Gardens and near the railway bridge are very narrow. Pedestrians and cyclists are under threat from the proximity and speed of vehicles.


• The argument to be included in Bath’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) was successfully won because the level of risk to health and well-being in the area was considered unacceptable, but these issues will not be addressed solely through the CAZ implementation as it excludes privately-owned diesel cars.

Advice on planning an LTN

• Low Traffic Neighbourhoods should be considered, designed and implemented specifically for the local area and respond to local problems, issues and opportunities.


• Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are not about rewarding one group of people while punishing another, but about making long-term decisions about how people travel by delivering safer environments for people to travel by a range of sustainable modes.


• It is important that during the development of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, cognisance of the location and heritage of the neighbourhood is considered, particularly in the selection of interventions and materials.

Possible infrastructures

• Modal filters  partial or full road closures, implementation of bus gates or carriageway width restrictions (i.e. width gates).


• Active mode promotion  reallocation of road space or on-street parking (secure with rentable spaces) to improve pedestrian and cycle infrastructure, change in priorities at junctions to provide better crossings.


• Cycle storage  it is proposed to roll out the delivery of on-street cycle hangers to enable people living in flats to store cycles conveniently and securely. This will help to promote sustainable travel and aid the delivery of liveable neighbourhoods.


• Public realm improvements  reclamation of space following implementation of modal filters and width gates can enable development of options such as parklets, build-outs, tree planting.


• Encouragement towards low emission vehicles  through incorporation of EV charging points within Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (making use of reclaimed road space).

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