Traffic ban creates ‘café culture’ in Exeter street

Changes to the traffic flow in a busy Exeter city street have helped create a ‘vibrant cafe culture’, councillors have been told.

The changes in Magdalen Road have been so successful that they are going to be made permanent.

Objectors pointed to traffic problems caused by the one-way system between Denmark Road and Fairpark Road, but Exeter City Council leader Phil Bialyk (Lab, Exwick) told them: “This is about change. If I choose to drive my car down there I’m just going to have to wait with everyone else, in order to give people in that area a better lifestyle. I’ve just got to suck it up!”.

Devon County Council’s Exeter highways and traffic orders committee voted to spend £127,000 to make the change permanent. It has been working on a trial basis for the past 18 months.

Cllr Yvonne Atkinson (Lab, Alphington and Cowick) said the changes had made a ‘massive improvement’. “It is now a vibrant cafe-culture street,” she said. “It’s an absolutely fantastic low-traffic neighbourhood.”

And Cllr Duncan Wood (Lab, Pinhoe) added: “There will be an impact and there are people who are disadvantaged, but the change is positive.”