AGENDA ITEM 6
BOROUGH OF POOLE
TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY GROUP – 25 NOVEMBER 2010
REPORT OF HEAD OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
A PETITION TO CREATE A NEWTOWN WARD 20MPH ZONE
PART OF THE PUBLISHED FORWARD PLAN NO
STATUS (Service Delivery Information)
1. PURPOSE OF REPORT AND POLICY CONTEXT
1.1 To consider a Petition requesting the creation of a 20 mph zone in the Newtown Ward.
2. DECISION(S) REQUIRED
It is recommended that the Portfolio Holder note the concerns of the petitioners but they be informed that :
2.1 on the basis of there being no significant level of accidents in the area it is not possible to justify the expenditure required to implement an area-wide 20 mph zone in the roads listed in the petition.
2.2 this area will be looked at in the near future in terms of developing a strategy for speed limits in residential roads, based on awaited revised guidance being issued by the Department for Transport.
2.3 A school scheme for Sylvan First School has already been identified for inclusion within the Transportation Capital Programme, and this should hopefully address some of the concerns raised by this petition
3. BACKGROUND
3.1 The Petition was presented to Council on 14 September 2010 and reads:
“The undersigned request the creation of a Newtown Ward 20mph Zone. This should cover all of the area affecting the safety of children attending Sylvan First School and Branksome Heath Middle School. There is a need to control speed throughout the area including Livingstone Road, Sylvan Road, Grove Road, Uppelby Road, Cranbrook Road, Haskells Road, Cynthia Road, Upper Road, Brixey Road, Southill Road, Churchill Road and Sunnyside Road.”
3.2 The presentation of this petition was also noted at the 16 September 2010 TAG, where a member stated that Ward members and the Area Committee should also be involved in development of any schemes which are identified as part of this process.
3.3 Accident Data
Current personal injury accidents (PIAs) levels experienced across the area are summarised in the following table (covering the 48 month period from August 2006 to July 2010):
PIA Severity / Across whole ‘Upper Parkstone’ Area1 / Across ‘Petition’ Area2Fatal / 0 / 0
Serious / 9 / 4
Slight / 56 / 23
Total / 65 / 27
Average Casualty Rate / 16.3 / year / 6.8 / year
PIA Category / Across whole ‘Upper Parkstone’ Area1 / Across ‘Petition’ Area2
Car Users / 30 / 15
Motorcycles / 17 / 7
Cyclists / 8 / 2
Pedestrians / 10 / 3
Child Injuries / 12 / 5
1. ‘Upper Parkstone Area’ = area bounded by Ashley Road, Alder Road, Herbert Avenue, Ringwood Road/Sea View Road.
2. Petition Area = area bounded by Ashley Road, Churchill Road, Sunnyside Road, Albert Road, Rossmore Road, Brixey Road, Cynthia Road, Ringwood Road/Sea View Road.
3.4 Urban Safety Management Principles
The Second Local Transport Plan (LTP2) sets out the principles by which collisions across an area should be tackled. It embraces the principles of Urban Safety Management which is based on tackling casualties occurring across an area rather than at high risk ‘cluster sites’. This also includes the intervention level for further investigation as being, over a four year period:
· 80 or more PIAs over 1 square kilometre, or
· 35 or more PIAs over 0.25 square kilometre areas
The LTP2 identified that 12 sites met this criteria, with the highest total of 114 PIAs occurring around Town Centre North and Longfleet Hospital areas.
3.5 The highest incidence of accidents in the Newtown Ward occurs in the 0.25 square kilometre square bounded by Ashley Road, Sea View Road / Ringwood Road, Upper Road and Uppleby Road, as shown in shown in Appendix A. This particular area experienced 25 PIAs over the period, considerably less than the stated intervention levels in item 3.4. Furthermore the bulk of these accidents occurred on the main roads of Sea View Road and Ringwood Road, in other words away from the more residential roads listed in the petition. These roads are the subject of further investigation for accident remedial measures within the current Road Safety Capital Programme.
4 INFORMATION
4.1 Current guidance in respect of designating speed limits is that they should reflect the average speed of vehicles currently using the roads, i.e. the creation of a 20mph zone should only really be considered when the speed of traffic is already at or below this speed. If measured speeds are found to be greater than this then there is a requirement to install traffic calming features in order to slow traffic down.
4.2 A recent example of this was the creation of a 20mph zone around the Old Town in Poole. As reported to the 17 January 2008 Transportation Advisory Group because of the nature of the road network vehicle speeds were already at or below 20mph, it was appropriate to create this zone by minimal signage and gateway features only. This scheme has been generally well received although monitoring is being carried out it is too early at this stage to determine the success of this in road safety terms.
4.3 The creation of an area-wide 20mph limit in Portsmouth City, the subject of widescale media coverage recently, has had mixed results in terms of safety reductions. A report just published has indicated that the scheme, which cost £500,000 to implement and covered 94% of the road network, has not brought about a reduction in the number of fatal or serious accidents, although overall casualty numbers fell 14% and average speeds reduced slightly by 1.3mph to 18.5mph.
4.4 The original “Heatherlands” Upper Parkstone Traffic Calming scheme was installed in 1995, at the time being the largest such scheme in Northern Europe. The scheme consisted of extensive traffic calming features, gateways and environmental improvements, taking some four years to complete. Appendix B sets out the before and after monitoring results for this scheme.
4.5 Existing vehicle speeds on the roads within the zone suggested in the petition have yet to be measured, although experience elsewhere indicates that in the majority of these roads mean speeds will be in excess of 20mph. Therefore using current guidance associated traffic calming in at least part of the area would be necessary. The original “Heatherlands” Upper Parkstone Traffic Calming Scheme covered an area of some 7 hectares and 7km of road length, and cost over £450,000 to construct. The area covered by the petition is actually slightly larger, covering approximately 9 hectares and includes 10km of road length. Even allowing for the fact that only some of the roads in this area would need to be traffic calmed, an anticipated cost of more than £250,000 would be expected. Given the relatively low accident rate shown in item 3.5 this would not appear to offer an effective return.
4.6 Notwithstanding the concerns around early schemes such as Portsmouth it is anticipated that the Department for Transport will be issuing guidance on the setting of speed limits in residential areas in the near future. It is expected that this will relax the requirement to introduce often prohibitively expensive traffic calming on the basis of the perceived community benefit that is achieved by the creation of such zones.
4.7 It is proposed to bring a report back to a future meeting of this Group when the new guidance has been established setting out proposals as to how it might be implemented here in Poole as part of the third Local Transport Plan (LTP3) road safety strategy.
4.8 The cost of creating such a zone in the roads being considered here at Upper Parkstone under the anticipated new criteria would be as follows:
· Advertising the various Speed Limit Orders - £2,000;
· Public Consultation and engagement exercise - £3,000;
· 20mph zone signage - £10,000;
· Zone gateway features as required at entry points to the zone - £20,000;
· Speed surveys, design, supervision and contingencies - £5,000.
Giving a total of £40,000
4.9 This reduced cost for a typical area is very much welcomed. However it does come at a time when funding provided by the Government for the delivery of the LTP3 is anticipated to be very much lower than the current level for the foreseeable future. This emphasises the need even more to develop a properly formulated approached in prioritising across the borough as to where the money would be spent most cost effectively.
It is likely to include such consideration as:
· Current accident rate
· Cost of the scheme and subsequent rate of return
· Average speed of vehicles
· Traffic / pedestrian flows
· Factors such as the density of housing, proximity to schools
· Perceived ‘community benefit’ – methodology yet to be determined
5. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
5.1 The current budget for Road Safety within the Transportation Capital Programme is £100,000. This is very much aimed at where injury accidents are occurring in order to achieve a maximum benefit.
5.2 Details are currently being finalised during December 2010 but it is anticipated that DfT Capital budgets will be reduced by the order of 50% over the course of the medium term financial plan for Poole.
6. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
6.1 There are no legal implications.
7. RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
7.1 Failure to address funds where accidents are occurring could adversely impact on the ability of this Authority to achieve challenging road safety targets likely to be set by the Government in the near future.
8. EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
8.1 None
9. CONCLUSIONS
9.1 While the concerns expressed by the petitioners are clearly understood it is considered that based on the current criteria for establishing speed limits then the costs of creating a 20mph zone could not be justified for the reasons stated in this report, in particular the high cost of installation.
9.2 It is likely that revised guidance on implementing 20mph zones in residential areas will be announced in due course by the Department for Transport which will remove a number of the current restrictions and so make it very much easier to create such areas. It is proposed that in the light of this guidance a report be presented to this Group as to how this might be introduced in Poole and an associated implementation strategy. Issues to be considered at this time will be affordability and just how much the ‘community benefit’ might be used as a basis for prioritising schemes as opposed to focusing purely on casualty reduction.
9.3 A report in response to a petition requesting traffic calming measures in Grove Road and Sylvan Road was presented to this Group at its meeting on 16 September 2010. The subsequent decision was that on the basis of the low accident record here road specific road safety measures could not be justified here. However within the schools category of the Transportation Capital Programme a scheme will shortly be developed for Sylvan First School. This may well consist of the creation of a 20mph school zone which should address some of the concerns expressed from the two recent petitioners. It is anticipated that the scheme will be considered for next years (2011/12) programme, but subject very much to sufficient funding being made available.
9.4 There will be full ward member and Area Committee involvement in the detailed development of any of these local schemes.
Report Author and Contact Officer – Martin Baker (01202) 262073
Background Papers: None
Appendix A – Plan showing roads covered by petition
Appendix B - Upper Parkstone Traffic Calming Scheme Monitoring
TAG251110T3C
21 October 2010
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