Paisley Traffic Management System Scrapped

It was with a mixture of delight and anger that I read todays news in the Evening Times  that Paisley’s “traffic management” scheme is to be finally scrapped after 11 years of the place declining as a direct result of it (and the Braehead Shopping Centre). My own local council West Dunbartonshire consistently promoted Paisley as best practice in the field and imposed a similar scheme in Dumbarton allowing only buses and taxis (no private cars) to access the High St. The result has been a decline in footfall of about a third along with accelerating closure of business. Last week a council official said that the scheme was “working well”.

I’m glad that the scheme in Paisley has finally been acknowledged as a failure but angry that long established businesses, some which had survived two world wars and a recession, were casualties of it. In Dumbarton the fight continues.