Safety improvements for city roads – give us your views

People living and working in Brighton & Hove are being asked for their views on our plans to improve the safety and accessibility of our roads.

We’re launching consultations on 4 new schemes planned for construction later this year.

All are among 10 areas prioritised in our Safer, Better Streets programme for 2025/26, which takes requests for safety improvements from residents and assesses them based on information such as casualty data, traffic counts and areas that need walking and cycling provision.

The schemes are:

• Old Shoreham Road near Silverdale Road
• Court Farm Road, just west of Nevill Close
• Holmes Avenue at the junctions with Cranmer Avenue and Elm Drive
• Surrenden Road at the junction of Surrenden Holt and the entrance to Varndean College.

All four consultations are open until Sunday 22 February.

Picture: Holmes Avenue at the junctions with Cranmer Avenue

How we assess and prioritise improvements

Each year we receive dozens of requests for road safety improvements across the city.

They include concerns around issues such as speeding, cycle safety, rat running and perceived collision blackspots.

If a site meets the initial criteria, it moves onto a more in-depth assessment, using 16 different safety and social categories including casualty data, access to key services, walking and cycling provision, traffic counts and accessibility.

Scoring each site on the criteria, we then produce a list of the top 10 locations where improvements are most urgently needed.

Read more about our Safer, Better Streets programme and how to request improvements.

Keeping our residents safe

Councillor Trevor Muten, Cabinet member for Transport and City Infrastructure, said: “Our Safer, Better Streets programme is very important to improve our roads, pavements and crossings and responding to the safety concerns of residents.

“Using data, we’re able to assess each site to make sure we’re prioritising the areas most in need of improvement. We now want to hear from people in the city about the plans for these 4 areas. Feedback is really important to make sure these schemes work for everyone.

“I’m really pleased to see the work we’ve done in the past 12 months. New crossings, junctions and paving means safer, better streets across Brighton & Hove.

Delivered in the last year

Work has been taking place to deliver the Safer, Better Streets schemes from 2024/25, including:

Nevill Avenue / Holmes Avenue

• Improved pedestrian crossings and dropped kerbs for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and buggies
• A new zebra crossing to increase pedestrian safety and encourage drivers to slow down.
• Resurfacing to improve both safety and comfort for all road users.

Newtown Road / Fonthill Road

• Closing the west arm of the junction to motor vehicles to prevent rat running
• Tackling speeding in residential areas
• Planting two new trees
• Installing new cycle stands
• Improving the tactile paving for pedestrians

Goldstone Villas, Eaton Villas and Clarendon Villas

• Removing the mini roundabout
• Raising the junction on the approach to encourage vehicles to slow down
• Making the junction of Eaton Villas and Goldstone Villas one way for motor vehicles
• Installing give way lines on Clarendon Villas at the junction with Goldstone Villas
• Widening the pavements on Eaton Villas and Clarendon Villas at the junctions to create more space for pedestrians
• Improving the pedestrian crossing on Eaton Villas
• Adding a new crossing point across Goldstone Villas
• Upgrading the current crossing on Clarendon Villas to a zebra crossing
• Planting two new trees and grass verges installed

As well as the above schemes, we’re also currently work has begun on the junction of Compton Avenue and Buckingham Place to install wider pavements, install grass verges and a rain garden and realign the disabled bays and cycle hangars.