SHAUN LOWTHORPE Plans to cut gridlock at a busy inner ring-road roundabout and help cope with hundreds of new homes have sparked residents' fears of increased rat-running on adjoining streets.

SHAUN LOWTHORPE

Plans to cut gridlock at a busy inner ring-road roundabout and help cope with hundreds of new homes have sparked residents' fears of increased rat-running on adjoining streets.

Norfolk County Council and Norwich City Council are proposing to reshape Whitefriars roundabout to cut speeds and remove a mini-roundabout and ban right turns into Barrack Street from Silver Road and into Silver Road from Barrack Street.

A report to Norwich Highways Agency committee says while 68pc of respondents to a questionnaire agreed there were traffic problems and 50pc felt improvements were needed, there was widespread concern that the plans would put extra pressure on neighbouring areas.

There were also complaints that there was too little being done out to help cyclists.

But the report says the measures would see a fall in traffic levels, while the proposals will be modified to take better account of cyclists:

“...traffic modelling cannot be precise on impacts on individual streets, though it indicates an overall reduction in through traffic to the Silver Road area,” says the report.

Other issues being considered by the committee include a raft of safety improvements at Unthank Road, where eight pedestrians have been knocked down between Somerleyton Street and College Road in the last five years.

Measures would include a 20mph speed limit, changing the existing signalled crossing by Gloucester Street to a zebra crossing to give more priority to pedestrians, and widening the footway between York Street and Gloucester Street.

The committee will also consider a report stating that traffic levels in the Earlham Road area have fallen since the opening of the Cringleford link road.

And it is also being asked to endorse Norwich City Council's policy on verge parking and consider

bans in several parts of the city.