Traffic congestion in Malton

• Posted on May 25, 2012
• in Maltons Journal
• by Emma

---

Denys Townsend, Chairman of Malton Business in Action, has sent me his ideas for reducing the traffic clog-up in the centre of Malton and I’d like to share them as widely as possible. This looks to me to be workable and inexpensive and surely worth a try! I’d love to know what people think about this, so do please leave your comments below.

For several years now I have been thinking that there must be a solution to relieve some of the traffic congestion at Butcher Corner, which has significantly increased while the Brambling Fields access to the A64 through Norton is closed.

The root cause of this problem is not the traffic hold-ups at the Level Crossing, where the trains cross the road every half hour and the hold-up usually clears within ten minutes.

The real cause of the congestion is that vehicles cannot turn right out of Castlegate against the Wheelgate traffic and also cannot turn right out of Yorkersgate against the Old Maltongate traffic going towards Pickering. My solution is along the lines of the present traffic light configuration of the Broughton Road junction at the top of Newbiggin. That particular junction consists of two side roads from which the volume of traffic does not justify this traffic light configuration, which is therefore unpopular and seen by users as æover-the-top’. However, that system would, in my opinion, be ideally suited to the large volume of traffic using Butcher Corner: if the configuration of those traffic lights were altered to give each road its own single movement, it would be possible to clear backlogs in Castlegate far more effectively. The existing pedestrian-only part of the cycle would be retained.

There are proposals for a one-way system along Blackboards (Norton Road) and for the narrowing of Castlegate to discourage people from using that route in the name of reducing air pollution. The cause of the air pollution is the volume of traffic: if that were cleared more quickly, might it not be a more effective solution, as well as a quicker and much cheaper one?

If the Brambling Fields disruption is to last a further three months, could this apparently simple solution at least be given a try in the meantime?