Southampton is grinding to a halt. About half the traffic lights are outdated and need upgrading, and the phasing on many junctions seems to be wrong. We should invest in intelligent, adaptive traffic signals that adjust in real time to actual traffic conditions.

Our city faces pressure from tens of thousands of daily commuters, football matches, docks traffic, cruise passengers, Red Funnel ferries to the Isle of Wight, as well as shoppers. Smooth traffic is vital for residents and the local economy.
Labour’s response? Make it worse. They’ve closed roads, are selling off car parks, and are piling on taxes and fines for motorists – pure ideology that punishes drivers, strangles our economy, and ignores what actually works.

Local Conservatives offer common‑sense, practical solutions that help people and support businesses. Look to Los Angeles: their ATSAC adaptive signal system has reduced travel times by around 10–12%, cut junction delays by over 30%, and eased congestion significantly in a far larger, more congested city. Southampton could see similar gains – perhaps 10–25% faster journeys during peak times and far less gridlock on key routes.

The Council expects to spend over £50 million on transport over the next 3 years, yet we’ve seen funds wasted on ineffective or botched schemes. Notably, the £57 million Transforming Cities Fund could comfortably have covered a comprehensive upgrade to intelligent traffic lights (at only a fraction of that cost), had it not been channelled into Labour’s anti‑motorist pet projects.

Under Conservative control in 2021/22, we doubled road repair spending, resurfacing over 100 roads, and tripled pothole repairs with the Pothole Patrol. We need to return to those effective levels – plus prioritise smart signals, proactive replacements (preventing failures like we saw outside the Civic Centre), and even removing unnecessary lights altogether.

As an immediate priority, we would commission an urgent, independent review of signal phasing at the most problematic junctions – such as Millbrook Roundabout.

Frequent local rail services from our eight city stations to places like the Waterside and Hedge End, along with water taxis across the Solent, would help too.

While Labour have scrapped elections across the country for over 4 million people this year, elections WILL go ahead in Southampton this May.

It’s time to kick Labour out and get Southampton moving again with Local Conservatives.