AGENDA ITEM 6
BOROUGH OF POOLE
TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY GROUP – 25 NOVEMBER 2010
REPORT OF HEAD OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
A PETITION TO CREATE A NEWTOWN WARD 20MPH ZONE
PART OF THE PUBLISHED FORWARD PLAN
NO
STATUS (Service Delivery Information)
1.
PURPOSE OF REPORT AND POLICY CONTEXT
1.1
To consider a Petition requesting the creation of a 20 mph zone in the
Newtown Ward.
2.
DECISION(S) REQUIRED
It is recommended that the Portfolio Holder note the concerns of the
petitioners but they be informed that :
2.1
on the basis of there being no significant level of accidents in the area it is not
possible to justify the expenditure required to implement an area-wide 20 mph
zone in the roads listed in the petition.
2.2
this area will be looked at in the near future in terms of developing a strategy
for speed limits in residential roads, based on awaited revised guidance being
issued by the Department for Transport.
2.3
A school scheme for Sylvan First School has already been identified for
inclusion within the Transportation Capital Programme, and this should
hopefully address some of the concerns raised by this petition
3.
BACKGROUND
3.1
The Petition was presented to Council on 14 September 2010 and reads:
“The undersigned request the creation of a Newtown Ward 20mph Zone. This
should cover all of the area affecting the safety of children attending Sylvan
First School and Branksome Heath Middle School. There is a need to control
speed throughout the area including Livingstone Road, Sylvan Road, Grove
Road, Uppelby Road, Cranbrook Road, Haskells Road, Cynthia Road, Upper
Road, Brixey Road, Southill Road, Churchill Road and Sunnyside Road.”
3.2
The presentation of this petition was also noted at the 16 September 2010
TAG, where a member stated that Ward members and the Area Committee
should also be involved in development of any schemes which are identified
as part of this process.
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3.3
Accident Data
Current personal injury accidents (PIAs) levels experienced across the area
are summarised in the following table (covering the 48 month period from
August 2006 to July 2010):
PIA Severity
Fatal
Serious
Slight
Total
Average Casualty Rate
PIA Category
Car Users
Motorcycles
Cyclists
Pedestrians
Child Injuries
Across whole ‘Upper
Parkstone’ Area1
0
9
56
65
16.3 / year
Across whole ‘Upper
Parkstone’ Area1
30
17
8
10
12
Across ‘Petition’ Area2
0
4
23
27
6.8 / year
Across ‘Petition’ Area2
15
7
2
3
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1. ‘Upper Parkstone Area’ = area bounded by Ashley Road, Alder Road, Herbert
Avenue, Ringwood Road/Sea View Road.
2. Petition Area = area bounded by Ashley Road, Churchill Road, Sunnyside Road,
Albert Road, Rossmore Road, Brixey Road, Cynthia Road, Ringwood Road/Sea View
Road.
3.4
Urban Safety Management Principles
The Second Local Transport Plan (LTP2) sets out the principles by which
collisions across an area should be tackled. It embraces the principles of
Urban Safety Management which is based on tackling casualties occurring
across an area rather than at high risk ‘cluster sites’. This also includes the
intervention level for further investigation as being, over a four year period:


80 or more PIAs over 1 square kilometre, or
35 or more PIAs over 0.25 square kilometre areas
The LTP2 identified that 12 sites met this criteria, with the highest total of 114
PIAs occurring around Town Centre North and Longfleet Hospital areas.
3.5
The highest incidence of accidents in the Newtown Ward occurs in the 0.25
square kilometre square bounded by Ashley Road, Sea View Road /
Ringwood Road, Upper Road and Uppleby Road, as shown in shown in
Appendix A. This particular area experienced 25 PIAs over the period,
considerably less than the stated intervention levels in item 3.4. Furthermore
the bulk of these accidents occurred on the main roads of Sea View Road and
Ringwood Road, in other words away from the more residential roads listed in
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the petition. These roads are the subject of further investigation for accident
remedial measures within the current Road Safety Capital Programme.
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INFORMATION
4.1
Current guidance in respect of designating speed limits is that they should
reflect the average speed of vehicles currently using the roads, i.e. the
creation of a 20mph zone should only really be considered when the speed of
traffic is already at or below this speed. If measured speeds are found to be
greater than this then there is a requirement to install traffic calming features
in order to slow traffic down.
4.2
A recent example of this was the creation of a 20mph zone around the Old
Town in Poole. As reported to the 17 January 2008 Transportation Advisory
Group because of the nature of the road network vehicle speeds were already
at or below 20mph, it was appropriate to create this zone by minimal signage
and gateway features only. This scheme has been generally well received
although monitoring is being carried out it is too early at this stage to
determine the success of this in road safety terms.
4.3
The creation of an area-wide 20mph limit in Portsmouth City, the subject of
widescale media coverage recently, has had mixed results in terms of safety
reductions. A report just published has indicated that the scheme, which cost
£500,000 to implement and covered 94% of the road network, has not brought
about a reduction in the number of fatal or serious accidents, although overall
casualty numbers fell 14% and average speeds reduced slightly by 1.3mph to
18.5mph.
4.4
The original “Heatherlands” Upper Parkstone Traffic Calming scheme was
installed in 1995, at the time being the largest such scheme in Northern
Europe. The scheme consisted of extensive traffic calming features, gateways
and environmental improvements, taking some four years to complete.
Appendix B sets out the before and after monitoring results for this scheme.
4.5
Existing vehicle speeds on the roads within the zone suggested in the petition
have yet to be measured, although experience elsewhere indicates that in the
majority of these roads mean speeds will be in excess of 20mph. Therefore
using current guidance associated traffic calming in at least part of the area
would be necessary. The original “Heatherlands” Upper Parkstone Traffic
Calming Scheme covered an area of some 7 hectares and 7km of road
length, and cost over £450,000 to construct. The area covered by the petition
is actually slightly larger, covering approximately 9 hectares and includes
10km of road length. Even allowing for the fact that only some of the roads in
this area would need to be traffic calmed, an anticipated cost of more than
£250,000 would be expected. Given the relatively low accident rate shown in
item 3.5 this would not appear to offer an effective return.
4.6
Notwithstanding the concerns around early schemes such as Portsmouth it is
anticipated that the Department for Transport will be issuing guidance on the
setting of speed limits in residential areas in the near future. It is expected that
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this will relax the requirement to introduce often prohibitively expensive traffic
calming on the basis of the perceived community benefit that is achieved by
the creation of such zones.
4.7
It is proposed to bring a report back to a future meeting of this Group when
the new guidance has been established setting out proposals as to how it
might be implemented here in Poole as part of the third Local Transport Plan
(LTP3) road safety strategy.
4.8
The cost of creating such a zone in the roads being considered here at Upper
Parkstone under the anticipated new criteria would be as follows:

Advertising the various Speed Limit Orders - £2,000;

Public Consultation and engagement exercise - £3,000;

20mph zone signage - £10,000;

Zone gateway features as required at entry points to the zone - £20,000;

Speed surveys, design, supervision and contingencies - £5,000.
Giving a total of £40,000
4.9
This reduced cost for a typical area is very much welcomed. However it does
come at a time when funding provided by the Government for the delivery of
the LTP3 is anticipated to be very much lower than the current level for the
foreseeable future. This emphasises the need even more to develop a
properly formulated approached in prioritising across the borough as to where
the money would be spent most cost effectively.
It is likely to include such consideration as:

Current accident rate

Cost of the scheme and subsequent rate of return

Average speed of vehicles

Traffic / pedestrian flows

Factors such as the density of housing, proximity to schools

Perceived ‘community benefit’ – methodology yet to be determined
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5.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
5.1
The current budget for Road Safety within the Transportation Capital
Programme is £100,000. This is very much aimed at where injury accidents
are occurring in order to achieve a maximum benefit.
5.2
Details are currently being finalised during December 2010 but it is anticipated
that DfT Capital budgets will be reduced by the order of 50% over the course
of the medium term financial plan for Poole.
6.
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
6.1
There are no legal implications.
7.
RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
7.1
Failure to address funds where accidents are occurring could adversely
impact on the ability of this Authority to achieve challenging road safety
targets likely to be set by the Government in the near future.
8.
EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
8.1
None
9.
CONCLUSIONS
9.1
While the concerns expressed by the petitioners are clearly understood it is
considered that based on the current criteria for establishing speed limits then
the costs of creating a 20mph zone could not be justified for the reasons
stated in this report, in particular the high cost of installation.
9.2
It is likely that revised guidance on implementing 20mph zones in residential
areas will be announced in due course by the Department for Transport which
will remove a number of the current restrictions and so make it very much
easier to create such areas. It is proposed that in the light of this guidance a
report be presented to this Group as to how this might be introduced in Poole
and an associated implementation strategy. Issues to be considered at this
time will be affordability and just how much the ‘community benefit’ might be
used as a basis for prioritising schemes as opposed to focusing purely on
casualty reduction.
9.3
A report in response to a petition requesting traffic calming measures in Grove
Road and Sylvan Road was presented to this Group at its meeting on 16
September 2010. The subsequent decision was that on the basis of the low
accident record here road specific road safety measures could not be justified
here. However within the schools category of the Transportation Capital
Programme a scheme will shortly be developed for Sylvan First School. This
may well consist of the creation of a 20mph school zone which should
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address some of the concerns expressed from the two recent petitioners. It is
anticipated that the scheme will be considered for next years (2011/12)
programme, but subject very much to sufficient funding being made available.
9.4
There will be full ward member and Area Committee involvement in the
detailed development of any of these local schemes.
Report Author and Contact Officer – Martin Baker (01202) 262073
Background Papers: None
Appendix A – Plan showing roads covered by petition
Appendix B - Upper Parkstone Traffic Calming Scheme Monitoring
TAG251110T3C
21 October 2010
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