With a third river crossing plan progressing quickly and a £3.5m transport infrastructure improvement project going ahead, Great Yarmouth is seeing major investment said to help boost its economy.
And to help the town reap the benefits of the £120m bridge and the completion of most of an overall transport improvement scheme by May, a travel masterplan is being looked at at both a borough council and county council level.
The councils are examining a draft Great Yarmouth Transport Strategy paper that aims to be completed by the end of the year and hopes to identify what it calls barriers to transport to help unlock the borough’s economic potential.
A draft report of the strategy is looking at several key areas:
The delivery of the funded third river crossing
Other transport schemes currently under construction and in design
Regeneration of underutilised land, particularly in South Denes
Development sites to meet housing and employment growth
Car parking issues
Growing traffic congestion within the town
The strategy includes possible traffic and car park surveys, modelling transport schemes, examining road signage provision, and reviewing and expanding an audit of existing provisions for pedestrians, cyclists and road users.
It will also tie-in with a borough council core strategy for 2030 that includes 7,140 new homes and the regeneration of waterfront areas.
The draft Great Yarmouth Transport Strategy paper states: “The strategy is intended to assist regeneration and unlock the significant potential of Great Yarmouth by identifying transport barriers to growth and economic development and setting out a focus and direction for how this will be addressed.”
Last week Norfolk County Council’s third crossing scheme was designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project status to help speed up the planning process. Work on the bridge is due to start in October 2020.
As motorists in the town are only too aware, the ongoing £3.5m transport improvement work project has seen work carried out at the Fullers Hill roundabout and The Conge. Other parts of the scheme to come will see better links created between the railway station and the town centre.
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