{"id":288418,"date":"2025-07-24T17:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288418\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T17:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:12:14","slug":"we-want-fewer-people-coming-into-manchester-city-centre-in-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288418\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We want fewer people coming into Manchester city centre in cars’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The statement came in response to a frustrated commuter.\"LucyLucy Powell(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

A Manchester MP has suggested the long-term goal for the city is to see \u2018fewer people coming into the centre in cars\u2019 after she was confronted with complaints about endless roadworks and traffic changes.<\/p>\n

Lucy Powell, MP for Manchester Central<\/a>, was grilled on BBC<\/a> Radio Manchester\u2019s hotseat after a frustrated Salford<\/a> resident wrote in about \u2018roadworks, road closures, and one way streets happening over night\u2019 on his daily commute.<\/p>\n

The resident wrote: \u201cWhat the hell is going on in central Manchester? Roadworks, road closures, one way streets happening over night. I live in Salford – 1.5 miles took me one and a half hours to get home last night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frustration has been mounting, especially among drivers between Salford and Manchester, who are facing months of \u2018traffic chaos\u2019 on Chapel Street. Roadworks set to last up to a year are currently in place as the council installs new bike lanes, pedestrian areas and spaces for buses.<\/p>\n

(Image: Antony \/ LDRS)<\/p>\n

Sitting in for Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham<\/a>, Ms Powell said she has \u2018fallen foul\u2019 of the traffic issues herself in recent weeks. Though she frequently \u2018knocks on doors\u2019 about highways complaints in the city centre, she admitted she\u2019s \u2018not had much of an effect\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese issues are for the council and not myself,\u201d she added. \u201cI have [knocked on doors]. I have. Deansgate<\/a> has been made one-way in many sections which has caused a lot of consternation, and there are many other issues there.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking ahead over time, obviously you want fewer people to be coming into the city centre in cars and using public transport and other means to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get lobbied a lot about the road works, the cost of parking, and all of those things in town. I\u2019ve not had that much of an effect so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

The works between Salford and Manchester are intended to ‘rebalance the space in favour of pedestrians and cyclists’, according to Salford council. But motorists have reported 20 to 40 minute delays on the route since May, with many worrying it will cause access issues for emergency vehicles and have a knock-on impact on local trade.<\/p>\n

Salford Council have previously stated that \u2018any scheme of this scale is going to be disruptive\u2019 and that delays were likely, but that the one-way system \u2018represented the best solution currently available to deliver the works safely and efficiently\u2019.<\/p>\n

There are currently 16 road closures or high impact road works in place in the city centre, with more than 50 additional works in place heading out towards Salford, according to Transport for Greater Manchester. These include temporary one-way systems on Chapel Street (A6), road closures on Aytoun Street, a lane closure on Portland Street, and other works on Fairfield Street off the Mancunian Way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The statement came in response to a frustrated commuter.Lucy Powell(Image: Manchester Evening News) A Manchester MP has suggested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,11564,2465,6406,285,1290,27605,760,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-288418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-greater-manchester-combined-authority","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-mps","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-salford","16":"tag-salford-council","17":"tag-traffic-and-travel","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114909331415955524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}