Chilton Rd (Route 544) Closed to Cars

Thanks for the post, Peter.

Looking at the one.network website, it seems somewhat bizarre that only half the road should be closed off and not the vast majority of it. There is, of course, an argument to be made for the houses near the bottom to have access, but the rest I presume is down to agricultural vehicle access to the field(s) on the south side. That said, in all my years living around here, I’ve never seen an agricultural vehicle using that road, never mind using it to gain access to farmland.

Having ridden that route today, I can confirm that at both the crossroads at the top of the hill and at the edge of Upton village at the bottom (where the small island narrows the road width) there are cones and sets of substantial plastic barriers creating a tight chicane through which only bikes (and pedestrians) will be able to get through.

From the point of view of cyclists, if it’s not a through road to motor traffic it should be quite a bit better, even if part of it is open. I take it that it is still open to cyclists?

I did add this to a Cycling UK suggestions site recently, remembering than when the A34 junction at Chilton was expanded making this traffic free to protect cyclists from increased traffic was considered, though ultimately rejected.