Good News Week - Lancaster Drive - We're richer than we thought

Concerns have been expressed by residents in this area for some considerable time about speeding vehicles on Lancaster Drive.

The subject has come up at Area Forums and at the last one Senior Engineering Manager John Davies reported the results of a survey he had carried out.

He explained the various options for traffic calming measures but made it clear that no monies would be available from 'Mainstream Funding'

However one or more of the options could be funded from Area Forum Monies available from April 2010 should the Ward Councillors agree.

The good news is that, for different reasons, I asked the new Area Forum Co-ordinator for a breakdown of Area Forum Monies spent over the last four years.

In doing this she discovered that three items had been accounted for twice. This means that there is still £4,562 in this year's kitty which can be carried forward to next year.

This puts the Ward Councillors in a much better position in deciding how to spend the money and makes it more likely that the residents around Lancaster Drive will get a better and quicker form of traffic calming than would otherwise have been the case.

For those concerned who were not at the Area Forum the options were described as follows:-


The cheapest option available was to introduce road safety markings which involved painting a safety marking at each end of the Lancaster drive Carriageway. However, Mr Davies advised that this would have a limited impact as drivers who were speeding would still more than likely drive the same way. This option would cost around £1,000 to install.

The second option was to introduce a 20mph limit on Lancaster Drive but due to legislation all the roads off Lancaster drive would have to have a 30mph sign at each entrance as these roads would remain at that speed. However, Mr Davies advised that the government were likely to change the legislation and then this would allow the whole estate to become a 20mph zone. Therefore, if the change in legislation was approved the whole estate would become a 20mph zone with repeater signs through all the roads to remind drivers. The option would cost between £5,000 and £7,000 to introduce.

The third option was to introduce a 20mph zone; Mr Davies informed the meeting that even though this sounded the same as the 20mph limit they did have a significant difference. He went on to say that when introducing a 20mph zone it had to contain its own self policing measures and the most common way to do this was to insert traffic humps throughout the estate, excluding the cul-de-sacs. This option was the most expensive between £35,000 to £45,000 to introduce.

Option 2 is favourite

Here's hoping

Sean

Any comments - electseanhornby@hotmail.co.uk

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