Two of the seven options would close Britannia Road to motor traffic. Officers are at Plumstead Road Library today, and comments close on Sunday 11 October.
Closing Britannia Road to cars altogether is one of seven options Norfolk County Council has put to residents, in a consultation that ends on Sunday 11 October.
The county council launched the consultation on 23 September after years of complaints about anti-social driving and vehicle gatherings on the road, which runs north from Ketts Hill past Norwich Prison to Mousehold Heath. It is acting as highway authority, alongside Norwich City Council and Norfolk Constabulary.
Officers from all three organisations are at Plumstead Road Library, 93 Plumstead Road, NR1 4JS, today. They are there from 10am to 1pm and again from 5pm to 8pm. Large copies of the plans stay on display at the library for the rest of the consultation.
The seven options
The drawings come from a county council feasibility study. Five keep the road open to traffic and two close it. From the accessible version of the plans:
- Option 1: a speed hump outside Britannia House, plus two pairs of speed cushions about 15 metres either side of the main car park entrance.
- Option 2: the same hump, plus a chicane just north of the car park entrance that narrows the carriageway to about 3.7 metres.
- Option 3: the same hump, plus a priority working feature narrowing the road to about 4.2 metres, with southbound traffic given priority.
- Option 4: one-way southbound for motor vehicles, with a contraflow for cyclists. Vincent Road becomes one-way northbound from Ketts Hill.
- Option 5: three speed humps, one outside Britannia House and one each side of the main car park entrance.
- Option 6: closure to motor vehicles immediately north of the residential properties, with a turning head built on the heath.
- Option 7: the same closure moved about 27 metres further north, with the turning head built in the car park instead.
Options 6 and 7 are modal filters rather than full closures. People on foot and on bikes would still get through. Britannia Road forms part of the Orange pedalway, so the cycle route is kept open in every option.
The council says one option may be taken forward, or a combination of several.
The speed surveys say the problem is not outside the houses
The most useful detail sits in the council’s own frequently asked questions, published on the project page.
Speed surveys were carried out at three points along Britannia Road over four weeks in summer 2025. Speeds above the 20mph limit were “largely confined to the part of Britannia Road which is north of the residential properties”. That is the stretch beside the prison wall, the heath and the car park, where there are no front doors.
It explains why the traffic calming in options 1, 2, 3 and 5 is clustered around the car park entrance rather than spread along the houses. It also explains the difference between options 6 and 7, which is essentially an argument about where the turning head goes: on Mousehold Heath, or inside the car park that already sits on it.
The council has ruled several things out, and says why:
- A limit below 20mph. The area “does not have very high pedestrian flows and does not have a high accident record”, so a lower limit is unlikely to be obeyed.
- Permanent speed cameras. Used where there is a clear accident record, which the council says is not the case here. They also would not address congregation.
- Vehicle activated signs. Residents have told the council the behaviour is deliberate, so a sign reminding drivers of their speed is unlikely to work.
- Rising or removable bollards. They are damaged often and cost a lot to maintain.
- Changes on Vincent Road. Cars parked on both sides already narrow it. Build-outs would need parking restrictions.
The order has been in place three years already
Norwich City Council has had a vehicle-related anti-social behaviour Public Spaces Protection Order covering the whole city since 26 July 2023. Its cabinet agreed an extension on 10 June 2026, and the sealed order runs for another three years from midnight on 26 July 2026.
The council’s page on the order says the gatherings are not formal events, but are organised, and “in some cases over 100 at a time”. More than 150 people responded to the 2023 consultation that brought the order in, and most supported it.
Sergeant Camilla Burwood of the Norwich North Neighbourhood Policing Team said officers patrol the area proactively and in response to calls, and use both Road Traffic Act and anti-social behaviour powers. She said warning letters “continue to be sent to those owners of vehicles engaging in ASB at both Britannia Road and other areas across the county”, and that “a number of fixed penalty notices have also been issued for breaches of the Public Space Protect Order”.
Denise Carlo, the city council’s cabinet member for housing and communities, said she had met residents of Britannia Road and Vincent Road: “They have told me about the vehicle-related anti-social behaviour that makes their lives a misery on a daily basis.”
Tom Dickerson, the county council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, was blunt about what a road scheme can achieve on its own. “Highway measures alone cannot solve the issues currently being experienced by local residents,” he said, “but we want to do everything in our power to help.”
Money, and the timetable
The work would be paid for from Local Transport Grant money provided by the Department for Transport, with a contribution of £11,000 from Norwich City Council. The council says costs vary considerably between the seven options and will be reviewed as the choice narrows.
Nothing is going to be built soon. The council states plainly that no construction work could take place until next financial year at the earliest, meaning April 2027 at the soonest. Options 4, 6 and 7 would all need traffic regulation orders, which carry their own statutory consultation and add time.
There is a further consultee most road schemes do not have. The car park off Britannia Road sits on Mousehold Heath, the verge outside the prison belongs to the city council, and the Heath is managed with the Mousehold Heath Conservators. The county council says it will need feedback from environmental organisations because of the status of the adjoining land.
If a traffic regulation order attracts objections that cannot be resolved, the matter goes to the cabinet member for highways and transport, whose decision is published on the council’s website.
What it means for you
- If you live on or near Britannia Road or Vincent Road, the drop-in sessions at Plumstead Road Library are today, 10am to 1pm and 5pm to 8pm. The plans stay up at the library until the consultation ends.
- The deadline for comments is Sunday 11 October. The survey is on the county council’s CitizenSpace portal, and it opened on 21 September.
- Anyone can respond, not only residents. The council has classed it as a public consultation, and has invited environmental organisations too.
- Paper copies and other formats are available from transportfornorwich@norfolk.gov.uk or on 0344 800 8020.
- If you drive to Mousehold Heath, options 6 and 7 would change how you reach the car park, and option 7 would take part of the car park itself for a turning head.
- Reporting incidents still matters. Norfolk Constabulary asked residents to keep calling in anti-social behaviour and dangerous driving, because that is what directs officers to the area.
The county council says it will publish the survey results on the project page once officers and partner organisations have reviewed them.
More Norwich road information: roadworks and travel, parking in Norwich and Norwich planning news.
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