Agenda item

Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am two working days before the meeting, ask a question on any matter in respect of the Cabinet Member’s delegated powers.

The number of questions which may be asked by any councillor at any one meeting is limited to two (or one question with notice and a supplementary question at the meeting) and the time for questions will be limited to 30 minutes in total. As with questions at Council, any questions which remain unanswered at the end of this item will receive a written response.

Questions submitted prior to the agenda being despatched are shown below and will be the subject of a response from the appropriate Cabinet Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Cabinet Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting. Questions received after the despatch of the agenda, but before the deadline, will be shown on the Schedule of Addenda circulated at the meeting, together with any written response which is available at that time

Councillor Glynis Phillips

“'Traffic problems at the Barton Park junction with the northern bypass continue to give cause for concern.

I quote from the residents WhatsApp:

'”an 18 wheeler truck heading for the crossing .... probably did not see the light change to red soon enough. So he pulled a full on emergency stop right in front of me. All his wheels locked up and was just skidding like on ice  making a huge loud of tyre smoke. You can still see the brake marks in the road.”

Another resident reported a lorry stopping so far into the intersection that it was blocking the bus lane and the right turn into Barton Park.

The Cabinet Member met with residents on 2nd June and so my question is  what progress has been made with installing barriers at the traffic lights and putting speed cameras in the northern bypass and would he consider reducing the speed to 40mph on this stretch of road and installing elevated traffic lights so that oncoming traffic has ample warning that they need to slow down?”

Response from Cabinet Member for Highways Management

“Thank you for taking this up with me I know you have been working closely with the community there and that the residents value your contribution. It is a shame that some people have chosen to be confrontational and insulting towards me on social media as this makes dealing with everyone's legitimate concerns more challenging.

Officers are still considering what type of barrier may be suitable, if any, for installation at the crossing. The issue here is that pedestrian barriers would provide very little protection should a vehicle lose control at the crossing and could indeed lead to a more severe injury for someone waiting at the crossing. Any barriers installed would only give those using the crossing a feeling of being safer and are likely to provide little protection in the event of a collision. As you know the council's budget is extremely limited and the small pot that is allocated to road safety must be used where it results in meaningful enhancements rather than just perceptions of increased safety. I have been working closely with the Police who have looked at the speed data and collision stats at the junction. The collision data shows that between 1/1/2015 and 30/4/2021 (76 months), there have been 4 collisions reported. Obviously, we don't want to see any accidents on our roads, but there are significantly more accidents on other routes.

I have asked officers to raise the issue of average speed cameras with the Police as it seems this could be the best system to have a meaningful effect on reducing speeds on the ring road. I am not able to provide any further information on that point at the moment.

There are already high-level signals at the junction, as shown below.

 Ultimately it is regrettable that these deficiencies weren't identified at the planning stage because the council taxpayers are now being asked to foot the bill to rectify something the developer should have paid for. We will continue to look at sensible solutions, but we must prioritise our funds and there isn't currently the case for the costly measures requested at this junction.”