MONIAIVE INITIATIVE – LIVING STREETS

Notes of Lower Speed Communities Meeting held 19 May 2017

Present: Representatives from Glencairn Community Council, Moniaive School Road Safety Officers, Moniaive Playcare, The Evergreens, St Ninians Church, The Flower Show, The Bluegrass Festival, Moniaive Gala, Glencairn Memorial Institute, Moniaive Walking Group, local business owners and residents.

Deborah Iden from Moniaive Initiative welcomed everyone to the meeting. Moniaive Initiative had undertaken a survey of local people in preparation for the development of their Action Plan. In this, local people had identified concerns about speed and volume of traffic, size of vehicles, parking, and difficulties for pedestrians. Moniaive Initiative had contacted Living Streets about their project, Lower Speed Communities. This project, funded by the Scottish Government’s Road Safety Framework, aims to work in 4 communities across Scotland where local people are concerned about speed and wish to see a 20 mph limit put in place.

Barbara Allan from Living Streets explained that the project is working with a range of different communities (from Lossiemouth, Inverness city centre to Glasgow). The project will work with local communities to identify the issues which concern them and develop solutions to these. Some of the solutions will be ones which communities can undertake on their own and others will be ones where communities will need to work with or influence the local authority. The project will support this. As well as speed, many communities are concerned about volume of traffic, parking and wish to encourage more local people to walk or cycle.

The meeting agreed, that though there were concerns with speed, volume of traffic at certain times and parking, that Moniaive was a village in an agricultural and forestry area. The work of the farms in particular was central to the life of the village. The village benefited from being busy with visitors, festivals and passing traffic unlike other similar villages. The discussion about speed was therefore in this context. It was about managing the balance between the needs of villagers, local agriculture and other employment and cars and pedestrians.

Issues in Moniaive

  • The community council has previously tried to get a 20 mph limit in Moniaive, without success
  • The primary school has no 20 mph area outside it. The main problem appears to be the lack somewhere to build in a drop off point outside the school. The narrow road layout in front of the school precludes this. Speed counts were however done outside the school some time ago and flashing lights (no longer operable) installed.
  • Many cars accelerate before they leave the 30 mph area and fail to slow down to 30 mph when entering the village. This can partly be attributed to the straight roads. It was noted however that the limit goes from 60 to 30 mph without any 40 mph area in between, and that though there are chevrons marked on the road, those present felt that extending the warnings would be helpful.
  • A lot of the vehicles coming through the village are large, either agricultural, timber wagons or delivery vans. Because of their size they can be quite intimidating and noisy. They can give the impression of speeding even when they are not.
  • There can be issues with timber wagons and questions were raised about whether all lorries were abiding by the goodwill agreement in place with local hauliers.
  • It was acknowledged that the village was a conservation area. Any solution needed to preserve the character of the village.
  • The narrow street design makes it difficult for large vehicles to traverse / turn.
  • The priority signage for the narrow, one-way section of the High Street do not seem to work, and this often leads to congestion.
  • Many houses do not have provision for parking and therefore park on the street.
  • The village has a good sized Car Park, but this is under-used. Those present concluded that poor signage made it difficult for visitors to find.
  • It was noted that bad parking is tolerated because it slows traffic down; but it was also agreed that bad parking still impacts adversely on pedestrians.
  • The front doors of many houses open directly onto the street, making it difficult for people to leave their homes when there is a lot of passing traffic
  • The narrow pavements, and lack of pavements in some areas make it difficult for pedestrians. The size and proximity of vehicles in the narrow streets are intimidating for people.
  • The corner by the Public Toilet can be very difficult: vehicles often park there, reducing visibility, and through traffic does not slow down to go around them.
  • The priority route signs are often not adhered to and the design of the road makes it difficult to see oncoming traffic
  • There are concerns about signage clutter. The Community Council is already working on this with the Local Authority. Any solution on 20 mph requires careful signage.
  • The Playcare finds the narrow pavements, lack of pavements, speed and volume of traffic and parking all create a real hazard when trying to take young children out.
  • Sonny and Carys, Junior Road Safety Officers at the Primary School reported that there were concerns about children exiting the school directly onto the road. They discussed this issue with pupils, and the children took the decision to all pupils must now exit through a side gate.
  • The street outside the school can be busy with parked cars from local residents, and visitors to the Doctor’s Surgery or the Memorial Institute. Vehicles sometimes park on the zig-zags. Parent and pupils alike shared concerns about the size and speed of passing traffic.
  • Many children do walk to school, but going along the street from the school to the main road is very difficult due to the lack of pavements. Crossing the main street from the back path can also be difficult.
  • Nobody was available from the Folk Festival, but Deborah staid that she had spoken to them regarding parking issues before this year’s festival, and that the organisers had agreed extra off-road parking for day-visitors this year. Those present suggested that this had made little or no difference. Deborah suggested that the particularly warm weather had brought our more campers and day-visitors than expected, or than could be catered for in the camping field.
  • Bluegrass Festival Organisers have a parking plan, parking stewards and they use traffic cones (supplied by local Police) to manage any parking issues.
  • The Bluegrass organisers pointed out that poor weather could make parking more difficult, as vehicles that risk parking on the field in wet weather often get stuck and need pulling out.
  • The Flower Show organisers said that their participants / visitors use Macara Park and the Ayr Street Garages for parking, and they did not experience problems.
  • Those present agreed that there can be problems with parking when festivals are on – this can be to do with volume of cars.
  • There are problems on road surrounding the village which are used for walking – narrow roads, speed, difficult for walkers to get on the verge.
  • The narrow streets, parking and traffic can cause a difficulty for emergency vehicles
  • D&G First intend to put in a wider pavement from the Mucklestane to the old post office. There was concern about the impact this will have on traffic within the village. A site visit is to be held next week.
  • There was discussion on whether gateway signs would help in alerting people to the fact that they were entering a village. It was noted that D&G intended to replace the village entry signs with new ones that will also incorporate the speed limit circle. It was noted that the community council had agreed to have the signs simply say ‘Moniaive’ rather than include a message (such as ‘Please drive carefully’).

Next Steps

  • Graeme Watson agreed to report back on any information from the site visit.
  • Barbara Allan to contact Dumfries and Galloway Council to alert them to the village’s involvement in the Lower Speed Communities Project and arrange a meeting with relevant officers. Glencairn Community Council to be involved in this meeting.
  • Specific discussion with the school to be held to get pupil and parents views.
  • Deborah Iden to contact the Community Police Officer regarding her proposed speed checks.
  • Barbara Allan reiterated the need to keep collecting evidence (eg, photos) of the problems.