Parking and stopping to be banned on these two Brighton and Hove sites

The roads will be marked with double red lines to indicate no stopping, let alone parking, except in marked bays, with camera enforcement in prospect.

The latest red routes were agreed a year after the first two were brought in along Lewes Road and the A23 London Road and Preston Road.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet has agreed to keep the first two and to turn these two more roads into red routes at a cabinet meeting at Hove Town Hall.

Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and parking, said that the first two red routes had improved traffic flow and bus punctuality.

The rules ban stopping for any vehicle apart from cabs and blue badge drop-offs but they have been criticised by traders and residents.

Business owners along London Road – M&B Meats and Pamir – have complained about receiving fines when delivery drivers are in loading bays and away from their vehicles for more than six minutes.

Other businesses – Presuming Ed and Smokemart – have struggled with lack of available loading bays.

More loading bays have been created along London Road since the scheme went live last April, with the loading area lengthened outside McDonald’s and Taco Bell because initially it was too small.

Councillor Muten said: “Can I make this clear – the red routes have not increased the length of road where parking is restricted.

“In fact, since the red routes were introduced in April, five new loading bays and one four-metre motorcycle parking bay have been added to London Road.

“We have listened and responded and will continued to do so.”

He said that the difference was enforcement, with the council’s transport control centre team monitoring the cameras and making “fair decisions”.

Councillor Muten said: “Loading bays are ignored by some who think the brevity of their illegal parking has no consequence – yet it does.

“The scale of disregard of existing parking restrictions on some main routes is such that we need to consider more robust enforcement.”

He said that bus build-up and hazards happened even when vehicles stopped “for a couple of minutes” when people went to the shops.

Brighton and Hove Buses had reported improved punctuality and reliability on the services using Lewes Road, London Road and Preston Road, he said.

Councillor Muten added that Cycling UK and Bricycles had said that cyclists felt safer because there were no illegally parked vehicles in the Lewes Road cycle lane.

The red routes will be funded from the £3.2 million Bus Service Improvement Scheme budget for 2025-26.

A longer-term strategy for red routes is expected to be brought before the cabinet later this year.