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15th March 2010
Dear Resident,
You will probably have seen evidence of the strength of feeling about the traffic calming measures via items in the Comet, and petitions in shops, pubs and on-line (http://mostsimply.com/). The Parish Council shares some of the frustrations which have been voiced. The road works have progressed quite slowly, the impact on local businesses during the road works has been significant, and the communication from Highways and their contractors on road closures has not always been clear or accurate. We will continue to work with them to improve these situations.
The opposition to the traffic calming measures is for some residents more deep-rooted. Some believe that there isn’t a problem with speed through Ickleford. However, in the Parish Plan questionnaire 504 households expressed concern about speed of vehicles through the village; 89 said it was not an issue. When Highways performed speed monitoring in December 2007 vehicle speeds were in excess of their criteria for implementing traffic calming.
Many residents were disappointed that we were not offered a greater choice of options to reduce traffic speed, especially as the Parish Plan questionnaire listed several possibilities. The questionnaire was created without input from the experts in Highways and the police who have looked at all possible ways to slow traffic (please see the Parish Council or Herts Highways websites, or contact either organisation for more details):
- Chicanes cannot be used in Ickleford because of the high volume of traffic on Arlesey Road and Turnpike Lane; they would cause excess traffic congestion. The number of driveways and road junctions onto these roads also preclude the use of chicanes.
- Flashing speed limit signs only reduce average speed by 2-3 mph, and only have that impact in the immediate vicinity of their location. In addition, Arlesey Road and Turnpike Lane do not fulfil Highways’ new criteria for these signs.
- Ickleford does not meet Highways’ criteria for traffic lights, fixed speed cameras or average speed cameras.
- Speed-dependent traffic lights, which turn to red if vehicles travel over the speed limit, and are used in Spain, are unfortunately not available yet in the UK
- Although the police occasionally do mobile speed checks these are only effective at the time they take place. As the police cannot do these 24/7, speed checks cannot permanently slow the traffic.
- We have asked the police about having a 20mph limit, especially around the school. As they are unable to enforce the current 30mph limit there is little likelihood that they can enforce a 20mph limit.
We were therefore left with road humps as the one and only technically feasible option (see the Parish Council website or contact us to see the type of humps proposed), and this was the subject of the village-wide survey in October 2008. We effectively posed a take-it-or-leave it option which frustrated some residents. However, that was precisely what was on offer from Highways; road humps to reduce traffic speed or the status quo. For Turnpike Lane, 566 voted in favour of the proposals, 298 voted against. For Arlesey Road, 602 voted in favour of the proposals, 256 voted against. We believed this to be a clear-cut decision. However, some residents feel that the views of the 600 villagers who did not reply to the survey need to be factored in. We don’t know how this can be done, and no election or referendum can ever take into account those who chose not to express their view.
There are many parts of this long and complex process which we think could have been handled more effectively, and we will perform a genuine review of the actions and processes to see how we could do a future consultation better. We will be happy to share the outcome of this review.
We understand that the large number of residents who voted against these proposals are angered and dismayed that the traffic calming measures are now being implemented. But we feel we have a duty to enact the wishes of the much larger number of residents who voted in favour of the proposals.
With best wishes,
Ickleford Parish Council
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