Agenda, decisions and minutes

Forward Plan Ref: 2013/184

Contact: Lynda Dunsdon, Engineer Tel: (01865) 815287

Report by Deputy Director for Environment & Economy – Commercial & Delivery (CMDE4).

The Cabinet member considered the results of a public consultation on a series of measures on the A417, Winnaway and A4185 to improve safety and access for walkers, cyclists and equestrians between the two halves of Harwell parish.

The Cabinet Member noted:

·                      an email from Councillor Zoe Patrick (Grove & Wantage) in which she expressed support for the scheme which although not in her division did impact on the A417 junctions which were used by many of her constituents.  She considered it a valuable link and hoped that in the future there could be a full connection along the A417 for cyclists from Wantage and Grove to access the key employment sites in the area, which would have a huge impact on the traffic on that busy route.  Her email referred to the campaign by the cyclists group HARBUG who were regularly campaigning for a good cycle route to work, and from her work on the LTP4 Group she hoped that some funding might be gained for this long-term scheme especially in the light of all the new housing developments planned for the area.

·                      Support from the local member Councillor Stewart Lilly

·                      Concerns expressed by the objectors but also the large body of support expressed by both local residents and landowners and local user groups.

Having regard to the arguments and options set out in the documentation before him and the representations made to him the Cabinet Member for Environment confirmed his decision as follows:

To approve the proposals as shown in Annex 1 to the report CMDE4 and to progress to detailed design and delivery in 2014/15.

Signed………………………………………..

Cabinet Member for Environment

Date of signing……………………………….

Forward Plan Ref: 2014/040

Contact: Jim Daughton, Service Manager – Delivery Tel: (01865) 323364

Report by Deputy Director for Environment & Economy – Commercial & Delivery (CMDE5).

The Cabinet Member for Environment considered a report CMDE5 setting out comments received to a consultation on two separate proposals for a series of road humps along Middleton Stoney road and a puffin crossing.  The proposal arose from the development of land adjacent to and to the south of Middleton Stoney road as part of the south west Bicester Kingsmere development for housing and community facilities.

Matthew Reeve on behalf of Countryside Properties UK Ltd explained that they were part of a joint venture company delivering the Kingsmere development at Bicester within an outline planning consent for 1,585 dwellings. Currently approximately 250 properties had been occupied to date.  A significant amount of infrastructure works, including strategic landscaping and off-site highways works had been carried out under the terms of a S278 agreement signed with OCC Highways in 2010 for 6 phases of off-site highways works all of which had been successfully delivered in close collaboration with OCC highway officers save for the last piece of off-site highway traffic calming works for the Middleton Stoney Road.  This scheme had been 3 years in the making with all options carefully considered.  He confirmed that some of the other phases for off-site highway works ie. Vendee Drive (Perimeter Road) had been completed well ahead of the relevant S106 trigger of 500 occupations and the road had opened in April 2012 with only around 20 occupations. Similarly the trigger for delivery of the Middleton Stoney Road traffic calming works was 650 occupations but delivery of that element was also well advanced as currently there were only around 250 occupations.  There had been a close co-ordinated approach with OCC highways over the past 3 years to create and develop the works from an in-principle design agreed at S106 stage through to detailed design submitted as part of a reserved matters planning application, approved by Cherwell DC.  A contractor had been lined up to carry out the works under an existing contract and any further delays in approval would increase cost and be  likely to delay delivery of the works.

Stefanie Rachmann-Davies WSP Transport Consultants gave a short presentation on the technical aspects of the design and how it had evolved from the original proposal for build-outs to the current proposed scheme.   During that time there had been several iterations undertaken to accommodate cyclists and the potential access to Kingsmere Phase 2 development for which planning application had been submitted in 2013 but not yet determined. The scheme had included a puffin crossing east of Shakespeare Drive which had been the preferred scheme of OCC officers and in accordance with Department for Transport advice. The principle of provision of a traffic calming scheme had been supported by Thames Valley Police in order to reduce speeds.  Her presentation also set out a comparison between speed cushions and build-outs/chicanes concluding that the former offered more advantages.  These included the most widely used form of calming, effectiveness at controlling speed of traffic, emergency vehicles not significantly affected,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32/14