Safer Walking

A Plan for the Improvement of Pedestrian Safety to Encourage Walking and the Use of Public Transport.

Issue 5

 12 January 2006

Introduction and Background

Due to concerns about pedestrian safety along the A39 through Hallatrow, a meeting took place on the 3^rd October 2002 with Mr Neil Terry, a Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) Traffic Engineer with Councillors John Hazell, Bob Hitchens and Keith Marshall present. The party walked Wells Road, part of Harts Lane and Paulton Road. During the walk observations were made concerning the feasibility of introducing features that would improve pedestrian safety ranging from ‘white lining’ to structural works involving pavement widening and a central refuge close to the ‘dropped-curb’ on Wells Road near the entrance to Harts Lane. It is believed such improvements would encourage walking and greater use of public transport, an initiative strongly supported by the Government. At the November Council Meeting it was decided to widen the scope of the plan to include the A39 through High Littleton and the provisions of the National Initiative ‘Safe Routes to School’, as outlined by the Governors of High Littleton C of E Primary School.

Initial thoughts to improve pedestrian safety were presented at a public meeting which preceded the January 2003 Council meeting. Also invited to the meeting were Mr Terry, his supervisor Mr Nick Jeanes, and Ms Bea Cooke of Envolve, B&NES Safe Routes to School Co-ordinator, who has been working closely with High Littleton C of E Primary School Governors on this subject. The meeting was well attended, a lively discussion ensued and the initiative was well received.

Each year the Parish Council submits its recommendation for three transport projects for inclusion into the B&NES Traffic and Safety Capital Programme - Three Requests Procedure. It has been the practice of the Parish Council to include a matching element of funding in its own budget. Work to improve road signs and white-lining can be implemented by B&NES outside of the three requests procedure.

During the ‘closed’ part of the Council meeting it was resolved that a document shall be prepared to detail specific pedestrian safety road improvements for pricing in a programme of work that will continue into the future. The document would be a ‘living’ document that would describe work done, work in progress and work planned as a record of ongoing achievement.

Application

It is proposed that individual works described in this Proposal are approved for application by B&NES Highways Department on a case by case basis. A schedule will then be prepared that will be reviewed from time to time to make best use of both Parish and District Council resources. This will provide the District Council with the opportunity to include ‘small initiatives’ in their ‘larger works’ thus reducing cost and time scale for both councils. Such ‘larger works’ for example would be routine ‘white lining’ and road improvement schemes arising from housing development.

Each initiative is identified with a site number on a Key Plan. A separate sheet identified by the site number describes in detail the improvement requested.

Acknowledgement

As this document describes a joint project, B&NES kindly granted their permission for High Littleton Parish Council to reproduce maps under their licensing agreement with Ordnance Survey.

INDEX / CHAIR'S REPORT / COUNCILLORS / HISTORY / DATES OF MEETINGS / AGENDA / MINUTES