UK’s ‘first private toll road in a century’ being investigated

What is thought to be the first private road in the UK for 100 years has been opened by a businessman in a bid to avoid the hour-long diversion around road works on the key route between the cities of Bristol and Bath, south-west England.
August 5, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

What is thought to be the first private road in the UK for 100 years has been opened by a businessman in a bid to avoid the hour-long diversion around road works on the key route between the cities of Bristol and Bath, south-west England.

Mike Watts spent £150,000 (US$250,000) to build the 400m gravel road in just three days to enable traffic to negotiate the A431 Kelston Road, which has been closed since February because of a landslide. He estimates it will cost another £150,000 to run the toll road for five months.

With motorists paying £2 each ($3.40) way to use the road, it will need to attract 1,000 cars a day if it is to break even.

Watts told newspapers: “Building a toll road isn’t easy to do: this is the first private road in Britain for 100 years. I think people are very grateful that we have taken this risk.”

However, Bath and North East Somerset Council predict the section of the A431 will be open again by Christmas, and has launched an investigation into the toll road, claiming it does not have planning permission and could be dangerous.

“This remains an active landslide, which could move without warning. In the absence of any information from the toll road promoters the council has concerns about the impact of traffic loading on the land above the slip,” said the council in a statement.

“The council is not in a position to support the temporary road option as we have not been provided with any evidence/information to support the application. A temporary toll road requires planning permission and no application has been received.

“In view of public concerns the council’s planning enforcement team is currently investigating this matter. The council has no details to confirm the toll road design meets safety standards and no evidence that insurances are in place for any member of the public who use the private toll road.”

The council added that it had considered a bypass road on the south side of the closure, where it would not increase loading above the landslip, but this was not viable.

Related Content

  • Aviva calls for tougher ‘crash for cash’ motor injury fraud sentencing
    June 18, 2014
    UK motor insurance firm Aviva has called for tougher custodial sentences for fraudulent 'slam-ons' – road traffic accidents deliberately caused in order to claim for whiplash compensation – which increased by 51% in the UK during 2013, according to Aviva’s claims fraud data. These induced accidents have a value of over €12.5 million (£10 million) and are at the highest levels ever detected by the insurer. In total, Aviva has over 6,000 motor injury claims linked to organised fraud activity and is calling f
    Read More
  • New methods for non-destructive concrete testing
    August 29, 2017
    How best is it possible to assess the state of concrete in a road pavement, bridge deck or tunnel wall? One of the most reliable ways is to take a core of concrete from the structure to analyse and test in the laboratory. One downside to this method is that doing the test creates weak points in the structure that must then be repaired. Another is that the frequency of such cores cannot be too great – so it is possible that some problem areas will be missed. New technologies from the world of geospatial eng
    Read More
  • Responsive roadsign developed by student
    August 22, 2013
    A UK student hopes his new lenticular road signs which ‘pulse’ at drivers will lead to a revolution in the way motorists are given information on the roads. Meanwhile, a leading road marking firm is helping keep tourists safe in a spiritually significant town in Umbria, Italy. Guy Woodford reports You may think Charles Gale’s vision of creating the first ‘pulsing’ lenticular road sign was the result of months, even years, spent studying traffic and driver behaviour on the roads of his adopted student c
    Read More
  • Photovoltaic finish to road noise pollution
    January 2, 2013
    Patrizia Bellucci from the Research and New Technologies Division of ANAS, in Rome introduces a sustainable approach to road noise abatement Traffic noise has been recognised by the World Health Organization as a major factor contributing to environmental pollution. Besides causing annoyance, it has significant negative health impacts on populations living close to road infrastructure. In 2002, to help counter this state of affairs, the European Parliament and Council adopted Directive 2002/49/EC relating t
    Read More

Highlighted Content