Council apologises for Maid Marian Way delays and tells drivers to avoid it

Traffic has been very congested after the latest phase of improvements to the area was completed

Nottingham City Council has apologised for delays on Maid Marian Way on the week it re-opened the road after roadworks. As part of "improvements" to help traffic flow, the junction of Maid Marian Way, Derby Road and Upper Parliament Street has become a T-junction instead of a roundabout.

But within hours of it being made open to public use, bus companies NCT and Trentbarton both said their buses were delayed. And locals made their feelings clear too, with one claiming the changes were causing "chaos".

Later on, the council issued a statement, admitting that "despite months of planning with partners including the bus operators", delays were evident. They asked motiorists to use a different route where possible - explaining that the current situation was not reflective of what it would be like when works are completely done.

The full statement said: "We’re at a difficult point of this ambitious Future High Streets government-funded project, with our teams working to balance buses, drivers, pedestrians and construction work on a very busy junction. The current situation at the junction is temporary while works are in progress and does not reflect the final situation.

"This is because currently, pedestrian crossings are working as 'straight across' (for safety reasons) which is reducing the amount of green time to traffic. They will operate differently in the full scheme and give more time to traffic. In addition, there is currently only one lane outbound from Parliament Street to the junction. This will be two lanes in the final scheme.

"Despite months of planning with our partners including the bus operators, we are seeing delays and for this we apologise and ask people to use different routes where possible. Our teams are on-site round the clock monitoring traffic flow, tweaking signal timings and signage and road markings to ensure traffic is flowing through the area as smoothly as possible."

The works on Maid Marian Way started in May and are set to be completed by spring 2025. They are being completed in phases, meaning the road and roundabout has at no point had to close fully, but has often been controlled by temporary traffic lights.

Now, for the first time, Maid Marian Way users can turn right straight onto Upper Parliament Street instead of going around a roundabout. And there are other new changes too, including drivers coming from Mount Street now being able to turn right, south down Maid Marian Way, instead of having to turn left and go around the roundabout to come back down.

The work was funded by a grant from the Government's "Future High Street Fund" to help the connectivity of roads across the country. The council says that most people consulted about the new proposed junciton in 2022 were in favour, including drivers of whom only a quarter thought the roundabout was good, and pedestrians who said they felt unsafe crossing the previous layout.