Round Hill Rat Run
NOT TOP PRIORITY FOR COUNCIL
From The Round Hill Reporter Spring 2024
The rat run along Princes Crescent and Wakefield Road has been ranked as a low priority by the council’s assessment framework for improving the safety of pedestrians and cyclists across the city.
The new framework, “Better, Safer Streets”, was launched last year as a more efficient way for capacity-constrained council officers to deal with the backlog of city-wide requests for road safety improvements. It also introduced a more holistic assessment approach, which takes into consideration more factors than just the blunt casualty figures used previously.
The Round Hill community conducted a five-year road safety campaign, including:
1. A petition asking the council to improve road safety measures for pedestrians and cyclists along the rat run
2. A petition asking the council to narrow the wide junction at the Princes Crescent with Crescent Road
3. A formal deputation to the council to prioritise low-traffic and greening measures within the Round Hill conservation area.
It was thanks to this long-running campaign that the community was included in the Better, Safer Streets assessment. Out of 92 locations put forward, the framework assessed 41 locations and ranked them according to priority. Pedestrian safety at the junction of Wakefield Road and Upper Lewes Road was ranked 38 out of 41 in terms of priority, while traffic-calming measures on Princes Crescent and Wakefield Road were ranked 39 out of 41.
Given constraints on council funding, and the greater priority afforded other locations across the city, it is unlikely any pedestrian safety improvements in Round Hill will happen soon. We will, of course, continue to campaign when worthwhile.
Dominic Furlong
This page was last updated by Ted on 23-Apr-2026