Get involved
The baseline has to be recorded before construction starts.
Construction is programmed for December 2026. Once construction traffic is on the road, nobody can measure what it was like before. Every clean week of data recorded now is evidence that cannot be argued with later.
Sign the council petition
- The petition asks for impact mitigations on Phase 1 — the ask this site sets out
- The council’s Cabinet decides the scheme’s business case on 24 September, put back from 10 September, so signatures now carry the most weight
- Share it with neighbours on the road, in Madley, Bridge Sollers and Lulham — and with parents at the school
Everyone on or near the Bridge Sollers Road, in Madley, Bridge Sollers and Lulham — and every parent at the school. Please care.
What would help most
Record traffic from your own window
Continuous camera-based counters can be mounted inside a window facing the road. They need no permission and no roadworks, and they build a continuous record of volume and speed. If your house faces the C1098 and you would be willing to host one, that is the single most useful thing you can offer.
Report near misses and incidents
The official collision record only counts injuries that were reported to the police. It does not capture the lorry that had to reverse, the walker who stepped into a hedge, or the near miss at the crossroads. Tell us what happened, when, and where. A dated log of ordinary incidents is evidence the formal record structurally cannot hold.
Support the ask at your parish council
Madley Parish Council and Bishopstone Group Parish Council are both already on the record about this road, from 2018. A parish motion adopting the ask — restrictions now, open monitoring, and pre-committed further measures if thresholds are crossed — carries considerably more weight with the council than the same words from individual residents.
Write to your ward councillor
Two questions are worth putting on the record: when the Belmont Road traffic order will be advertised, and whether the current design conforms to the 2016 approved plans and the 2018 Side Roads Order.
Join the Facebook group
The group’s Facebook group is where news lands first — join it, and share its posts so they reach beyond the villages.
What we are not asking for
We are not asking anyone to oppose the bypass. Plenty of residents want it built, and the group takes no position on the scheme as a whole. The ask is narrow, specific and two-tiered: restrictions now on a road the council has itself called unsuitable since 2012, plus open monitoring with additional measures pre-committed if agreed thresholds are crossed — so the first step never waits on a forecast, and the next step never needs a fresh campaign.
That framing matters practically as well as honestly. An objection the council can resolve by making a commitment is far more likely to succeed than one it can only refuse.
Hear when something happens
Not everyone is on Facebook. Leave an email address and we will send a short note when there is news worth knowing — the Cabinet decision, a consultation deadline, a meeting. Nothing else, and every email has an unsubscribe link.