Residents Raise Concerns of
Increased Traffic on Chevet Lane
Over 50 residents attended, a meeting held at the
Three Houses on Monday 12th September, to put forward their
concerned to the Bob Wyatt, Senior Traffic Engineer, Wakefield District
Council.
The meeting was organised by Sandal Community
Association with support from Councillor Monica Graham after concerns were
raised from SCA members Gill Whittingham and Louise Walker.
Gill Whittingham noted that a further 15 residents
had sent letters or emails because they were unable to make the time
highlighted the concerns. Opening the meeting Gill summarised the
concerned raised and enforced that there was a consistent call for
action.
Issues raised from the residents include:
- The Volume of traffic and the size of the lorries
has increased significantly, including articulated lorries and farm
machinery
- The speed of vehicles in both directions was too
high
- The main companies involved are Hargreaves,
Symphony and Greenfield Produce
- Vehicles cannot pass and regularly mount pavements
and use driveways as passing places
- Pedestrian use is increasingly dangerous
especially on the bend and junction of car Lane
- The synchronisation of the traffic lights at the
junction of Barnsley Road and Chevet Lane causes accidents
- The increase level of noise from traffic 24 / 7
- Residents not receiving responses from the Council
when concerns have been submitted to them
Bob Wyatt responded on behalf of the council saying
that this was a common problem, however the legal size for transportation
is set by the EEC which in theory is supposed to reduce the amount of
transport on the road, however this is not the case due to decreased costs
more transport takes to the road.
Legally the council can only stop traffic if it is
simply passing through regardless of the size of the problem. This is a
right of access.
Accident
figures on Chevet Lane are “quite safe”, 2 in three and a half years.
Accidents are not included in statistics if there are no injuries, the
council is charged with reducing injuries not reducing accidents. Mark
Bridges was shocked that 2 accidents he witnessed, one in March this year,
at the junction of Carr Lane and Chevet Lane were not included in the
statistics due to the seriousness of the accidents.
Bob Wyatt explained that there are generally10 none
injury accidents to 1 injury accident.
The council has no remit to deal with speed issues as
this is a Police issues, this lead to concerns from the residents who felt
that they had been passed from council to police when previously trying to
solve the issue.
This year the Wakefield Council will not be spending
money on road development, all new road developments are paid for by
developers. The Council does not have control of the transport plan which
is being organised by METRO, in the road transport plan safety is only
mentioned once. There is a consultation process ongoing with METRO
regarding the new transport plan.
Money within the council will be pushed into public
transport which causes a problem due to lack of funding to deal with
residents issues, the Highways department has a £50,000 discretionary
budget to deal with resident issues, this ranges from marking out resident
disabled bays outside houses to speed enforcement work.
Bob Wyatt agreed to
- Undertake a traffic assessment
survey of the lorries travelling along Chevet Lane to identify how much
is through traffic, this will be done from 5 a.m.
- Double White lines will be placed
down Chevet Lane
- Bob Wyatt to view the footpaths in
particular the narrow section where there is insufficient space for two
vehicles to cross in the road
- The loop system on the traffic
lights will be reviewed
- Statistics for the accidents on
Chevet Lane to be made public
- Police to be invited to attend a
follow up meeting on the 14th November
- Residents to attend the next Police
and Community Team meeting at Agbrigg Community Centre on the 25th
October 2011.
Any residents wishing to comment further on this or
other Sandal resident issues can email to
info@sandal.org.uk .
A number of Chevet Lane residents attended the PACT meeting with the
local police at the Agbrigg Community Centre on Wednesday 5 Oct when the
subject of the traffic on Chevet Lane was one of the main topics for
discussion. Insp. Helen Brear acknowledged that there had been a
problem with traffic for some time. She outlined the criteria for
considering the introduction of traffic calming measures.
Unfortunately, under the 'scoring' system used by the Highways Dept. to
decide where and what measures should be taken, Chevet Lane is not a
priority as it does not fully meet the requirements to warrant expenditure
of about £200k to provide full traffic calming systems. It was
pointed out to Insp. Brear that the residents are not necessarily asking
for speed humps etc. but a weight restriction to reduce the number of
H.G.V.'s using the lane and possibly putting up mobile speed camera signs
which would not incur a huge outlay. Insp. Brear was very much in
support of the views of Chevet Lane residents. She will be attending
the next meeting on 14 Nov. at 4.00pm at the Three houses and asked
if residents could provide information about the companies whose H.G.V's
appear to be causing problems on Chevet Lane. In order to keep our
campaign going, we propose to carry out our own traffic survey to try to
identify these vehicles.
Below is a copy of the letter sent to Inspector Brear
containing the results of the recent survey.
Microsoft Word - Letter to Inspector Brear 21st October.pdf
Microsoft Word - Chevet Lane Meeting Monday 14th November 2011.pdf
..\Autospeed875 52011281 Chevet Ln Sandal.xls
Explanation of
statistics Chevet Lane
The 85%ile speed is the speed at or below which 85% of the traffic is
travelling.
The police use this speed in determining if enforcement is
appropriate.
We use it as an indication of the speed that the average motorists will
travel at or below given . 15% of motorists are regarded as being not
responsible and will travel at whatever speed they wish unless
artificially constrained.
