Two minute Exeter journey takes 'an hour' in road closure mayhem

An Exeter trader has said shoppers will be put off visiting the city centre after a week of traffic mayhem. Multiple roadworks across the city led to long queues and "insane" delays in recent weeks.

Despite living less than half a mile away from her shop Hyde and Seek on Paul Street, Justine Hyde drove to work last week when she had to drop off some chairs. But instead of the two-minute journey she would normally expect, she found herself sitting in traffic for an hour.

She puts it down to multiple road closures in the St David's and St Thomas areas of the city, including on the Iron Bridge and West Street, which all happened at the same time. Many of these are understood to have been emergency works by utility companies.

"It was insane," she said. "The only way I could leave my road was to go right on New Bridge Street and go around the Exe Bridges.

⚠️ Want the latest Devon breaking news and top stories first? Click here to join our WhatsApp group. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice⚠️

"I couldn't go straight across New Bridge Street down past St Mary's Church because that was shut. Added on to that, I couldn't go past Exeter College because that was shut.

"It was all backed up from Exe Bridges because of the roadworks that are going on. I appreciate there might be emergencies at times and I think there was some pipework works going on on the Iron Bridge but why would you shut them all at once?

"Shutting so many roads all at once is, in my opinion, is not only really inconvenient for the drivers but what about the emergency services?"

She says she has raised the issue with Highways authority Devon County Council. "I have moaned before but there doesn't seem to be anybody who knows what's going on when," she said.

Devon County Council says some of the closures have been due to surface repairs and that it aims to have work completed before late night shopping begins in the city centre. It says that some of the other closures have been put in place by utility companies who, by law, are not required to warn the council if they are carrying out emergency works.

A spokesperson for the authority said: "We have been patching the main routes into Exeter in preparation for winter and we aim to complete the work before Christmas late night shopping begins.

"All of these schemes have been night-time closures to limit the impact on the travelling public. However there have also been a number of works managed by utilities.

"Utilities are legally permitted to access their infrastructure immediately to repair a fault or in response to an emergency without advanced notice. We work with them to help prevent direct clashes, however preventing all disruption to the network isn’t always possible.

"If planned work is already taking place and then, in the same area, that is overlaid with reactive works unfortunately it can result in congestion."

Hyde and Seek, a gift and homeware store, is located on the corner with Queen Street, which is now one-way. With all the roadworks going on, Justine says this system has also been impacted.

She said: "If you're going to make a one-way system, great but you've got to keep the one-way system going. Otherwise, where do you go?"

As businesses gear up for the busy Christmas shopping season, Justine fears that shoppers who were caught up in long queues may be put off coming back.

She said: "I was lucky because I was getting off at Bartholomew Street West Car Park, but there were other people sat there. I live on that road, so I know it wasn't clearing until half six at night. People leaving town or leaving work won't want to come back to Exeter if it takes an hour plus to get out of the city.

"If people stopped, they just said 'we can't risk parking in that car park because we weren't able to get out there and that's 18 pounds a day.'"

It comes at a time when the business owner says she has noticed a drop in footfall. To refresh the shop, Hyde and Seek recently installed a new cafe, which Justine believes was "the only way" to keep the place going.

She said: "We have just done the new café to try and keep our business going. We've invested all of our money to open this because the only way we're going to keep it going is by diversifying.

"I don't know what other businesses are feeling like with the footfall at the moment, but we're really feeling it."