Exchange Street cameras set up before Norwich road reopens

Exchange Street is slated to reopen to vehicles on Saturday, November 18 after Norfolk County Council's cabinet member for transport Graham Plant made a screeching u-turn last month.

There are currently six traffic monitoring cameras along Exchange Street (Image: Newsquest)

Other than certain time windows for delivery vehicles, the road has been pedestrianised since the pandemic but now cafes and bars are losing their outside seating areas as vehicles return.

Ahead of the reopening, traffic monitoring cameras have been installed to assess the amount of traffic before and after the reopening.

County councillor Mr Plant said: "Exchange Street is due to reopen to traffic at the end of next week.

"Safety will always be my priority and it is clear that the current arrangement would continue to see a dangerous mix between reversing vehicles and pedestrians.

Exchange Street is due to reopen on November 18 (Image: Newsquest)

"We will continue to monitor the situation on Exchange Street as the road reopens.

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"As part of that work, we are using traffic monitoring cameras to capture how many people are using Exchange Street immediately before it reopens to traffic.

Councillor Graham Plant said it's clear that the current arrangement would continue to see a dangerous mix between reversing vehicles and pedestrians (Image: Newsquest)
"This will give us an up-to-date picture of the area, which we can use as a point of reference when assessing any future schemes.

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"Any proposals for the area would need to clearly demonstrate how they are addressing our safety concerns."

Despite a recent cross-party scrutiny committee at County Hall, Mr Plant doubled down on his decision to reopen the road.

The lack of compromise has been slammed by rival parties and Norwich City Council, where the controlling Labour administration were in support of the pedestrianisation but will now have to refund the licences for businesses hosting customers outside.

The cameras are to monitor the situation on Exchange Street before the road reopens (Image: Newsquest)

Graham Plant said the cameras will provide an up-to-date picture of the area (Image: Newsquest)