Integrated Transport Feasibility Study Report

ITCP‐2019‐06 (Pinfold Lane/A6121)

Rutland County Council: Version?

REVISION SCHEDULE

Rev Date Details Prepared by Reviewed by Approved by A 27/6/2019 Scheme complete RG

B 4/7/2019 Addition of footpath and RG school signs

(Date)

Rutland County Council: Version?

Contents

1 Introduction ...... 4

2 Site Description ...... 4

3 Accident Data & Analysis ...... 9

4 Speed Survey ...... 10

5 Conclusion ...... 11

6 Proposals ...... 12

7 Recommendation ...... 16 Appendix A - Scheme Drawings

(Date)

1 Introduction The Parish Council have expressed concerns that vehicles are still speeding through South Luffenham along the A6121. The installation of the chicane on the A6121 west of Lane, has helped reduce speeds as vehicle enter South Luffenham. However the Parish Council feel that vehicles are then speeding up through the centre of the village, predominantly around Hall Close.

The Parish Council, along with residents, have expressed concerns relating to safety about the narrowness of Pinfold Close. The parking around Pinfold Close is very limited and therefore vehicles park on the highway and in the informal layby. This can make it difficult for large vehicles to access the far end of Pinfold Close, and in doing so will usually run over and damage the footpath.

2 Site Description South Luffenham is situated on the A6121 which connects the A47 from to the A1 at Stamford. This is a main road that connects numerous villages to Stamford and the A47.

The approach into South Luffenham along the A6121 from Morcott is a long straight road. In 2018 this approach to South Luffenham was upgraded with road markings, a chicane, associated signage and improved village name plate on yellow backing; as illustrated below:

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The approach into South Luffenham travelling east to west from , has a 30mph roundel on either side of the road and a red high friction surfacing patch with a 30mph roundel on it.

Both entrances into the village along the A6121 already benefit from speed indicator devices (SIDs). SIDs are installed to reduce the speed of vehicles approaching them. These SIDS indicate the speed of the vehicle.

Direction 11 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 (TSRGD 2002), as amended, defines the requirements for the placing of speed-limit repeater signs. This states that speed-limit repeater signs cannot be placed along a road on which there is carriageway lighting not more than 183 metres apart and which is subject to a 30 mph speed limit. This direction applies regardless of how the speed limit has been imposed

There are no repeater roundels along the A6121 through South Luffenham 30mph limit, as the street lighting complies with the TRSGD 2002.

There are solid white lines down the centre of the carriageway through the village. There are 3 pedestrian refuge islands through the village, one outside the bus stop, one to the east of the junction of Back Lane and the A6121 and one west of Barrowden Lane.

Both bus stops on the A6121 are used by primary and secondary school children to access the school bus. The students use the pedestrian refuge islands to access the bus stop on the southern side of the A6121. There are no warning signs along the A6121 to alter drivers that students will be crossing the road ahead.

Footpath from Barrowden Lane to western entrance to Village

On the northern side of the A6121 there is a footpath for its entire length. This is used by pedestrians to access the public open space (POS), other residential areas in the village, the bus stop and pub. On the southern side of the A6121 there is a footpath from 22 to 24 Stamford Road (as shown in orange on the plan below). At both ends of the footpath there is a pedestrian refuge island to assist pedestrians crossing the road. 5 | Page

There is no footpath or pedestrian refuge island for the dwellings highlighted by a red start on the plan below. These residents are required to walk along 100m of grass verge (shown in blue on the plan below), to access the footpath and pedestrian refuge island to safely cross the A6121. There is no scope within the carriageway to install an additional pedestrian refuge island outside the dwellings highlighted by a red star on the plan below.

The verge on the southern side of the road is relatively wide and flat, and therefore it would be possible to install a 1.8m footway. There is a BT telegraph pole in the verge, which would need to be relocated if a footpath was constructed on this side of the road. It would be unsafe to leave the telegraph pole in the centre of the footway, as it is causing an obstruction/hazard. 6 | Page

The Rutland Access Group (RAG) have the following comments on a footpath on the southern side of the A6121: “The access group would support the additional footpath as I would imagine crossing this road could be quite difficult at times and the assistance of the refuge island would be most welcome. I would imagine that people on the south of this road do feel isolated and cut off from the rest of the village. This work would assist on redressing the balance”.

Barrowden Lane

Barrowden Lane joins the village of South Luffenham (A6121) to a cross roads on the A47 leading to the village of Barrowden.

The access of Barrowden Lane to the A6121 has good visibility in both direction and good down towards Luffenham Road; which is situated directly opposite the Barrowden Lane junction with the A6121.

Barrowden Lane has a 7.5ton weight restriction, except for access for its entire length. It is national speed limit from the A47 leading north to South Luffenham. At the first house on Barrowden Lane travelling from the A47 the speed limit is reduced to 20mph and there is a speed bump. There is another speed bump approximately 100m away from the first speed bump at entrance to the village.

The junction of Barrowden Lane at the A6121 was narrowed in 2018 to help reduce vehicle speeds as they enter the Barrowden Lane.

Pinfold Close

Pinfold Close is a small adopted road leading off Pinfold Lane. The residential parking on Pinfold Close is limited and therefore a lot of vehicles park on the adopted highway and informal lay by. This can make the road narrow, restricting the movement of large vehicles/emergency vehicle or refuge lorries

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The POS to the north west of Pinfold Close is owned and maintained by RCC, therefore there is scope outside of the adopted boundary to improve the highway at this location.

The images below are an example of the parking around Pinfold Close.

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The images above clearly demonstrate how the parking around Pinfold Close narrow the carriageway, preventing the RCC refuse lorry access the full length of Pinfold Close. RCC refuge vehicles struggle with this problem on a weekly basis and sometimes cannot access the full length Pinfold Close to empty the bins.

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3 Accident Data and Analysis The accident data for the A6121 through South Luffenham has been collected between 1/4/2009 and 31/3/2019.

There has been 1 recorded accident in the las 10 years.

Accident 201801031 – V1 was travelling south east on Hall Lane, turns right onto Stamford Road into path of V2 (motorcycle travelling south west. V2 collides with rear of V1.

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4 Speed Survey Data A speed survey was carried out between 13/6/2017 and 16/6/2017 on the A6121; between the junction of Hall Lane with Stamford Road and the bus stop layby. The approaching traffic is vehicles travelling towards Ketton.

Average Speed (25mph)

Bidirectional Approaching Receding 13/06/2017 25 25 24 14/06/2017 25 26 25 15/06/2017 26 26 25 16/06/2017 27 28 26

85th Percentile (30mph) Bidirectional Approaching Receding 13/06/2017 29 30 29 14/06/2017 30 31 29 15/06/2017 30 32 30 16/06/2017 33 34 32 This speed survey has demonstrated that vehicles are complying with the 30mph speed limit.

A speed survey was carried out between 15/5/2019 and 23/5/2019; east of the bus stop layby on Stamford Road (95m east of the 2017 speed survey). The approach traffic is those entering the village from Ketton Average Speed (42mph) Bidirectional Approaching Receding 15/05/2019 41 42 41 16/05/2019 42 42 42 17/05/2019 42 42 42 18/05/2019 43 44 43 19/05/2019 43 43 43 20/05/2019 42 42 41 21/05/2019 42 43 41 22/05/2019 42 43 42 23/05/2019 43 43 42

85th Percentile (50mph) Bidirectional Approaching Receding 15/05/2019 48 49 47 16/05/2019 49 50 48 17/05/2019 49 50 48 18/05/2019 50 52 50 19/05/2019 50 51 50 20/05/2019 49 50 48 21/05/2019 49 50 48 22/05/2019 50 50 48 23/05/2019 50 52 49 This survey has demonstrated that vehicles are no longer complying with the 30mph speed limit at this location. 11 | Page

5 Conclusion

Pinfold Close

There are various methods that can be installed to improve the road layout to ensure large vehicles can access the site with parked vehicles parking in the informal layby, these include double yellow lines or alter the lay-by area to widen the carriageway.

Main Street A6121

There are no warning signs for children crossing the road for the POS or for accessing the bus stop. An option, therefore could be to install a children crossing warning sign just inside the 30mph on the eastern approach to South Luffenham, and just west of the Bus Stop.

There is no footpath or pedestrian refuge for the residents living on Main Street, west of Barrowden Lane. The installation of a footpath along this section of road will provide these residents with a safe crossing place.

Vehicle speeds along the A6121 have increased since the 2017 speed survey for the middle section of the village. The average speed has increased by 7mph and the 85th percentile has increased by 20mph.

The ACPO Speed Enforcement Guidance states “in cases where there are high levels of non- compliance, it would tend to identify those limits which maybe are in more unclear areas and poorly displayed. Rather than a need for high levels of enforcement and prosecution, which has the potential to lose public support, the limit should be reviewed (DFT 01/2013). Review should lead to additional engineering, signing or eve different speed limits, as the display of the limit was more likely to have been the cause than deliberate offending”1.

Generally speed limits should be evidence-led and self-explaining to seek to reinforce people’s assessment of what is a safe speed to travel, and encourage self-compliance and see the limit as the maximum rather than a target speed.

The speed along the A6121 was previously set at 40mph. 40mph speed limits are set on road in urbans areas where there is little development on both sides of the carriageway and on roads with a good width, layout, parking and waiting restrictions in operation and buildings set back from the road.

The A6121 through South Luffenham is a wide section of carriageway with a footpath on only the northern side. The properties which front onto the A6121 are set back from the carriageway and either have fence or hedge adjacent to the highway boundary. The A6121 caters for the need of non- motorised road users through segregation of road space, as it has adequate footpaths and uncontrolled crossing points. It could be suggested that the speed through South Luffenham should be reverted back to 40mph. However the Parish Council and residents were the advocates for the reduction in the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph, and therefore the 30mph limit should remain.

1 ACPO Speed Enforcement Guidance 1.1.5 ‐ http://library.college.police.uk/docs/appref/ACPO‐Speed‐Enforcement‐ Guidance.pdf 12 | Page

6 Proposals 1) Pinfold Close – extend carriageway into existing informal layby, create new layby for parking, divert existing footpath, and widen carriageway outside No.17. Costs Approximately £20,000

Advantages: - Widen carriageway outside No.17 to 7m to make it easier for large vehicles to access Pinfold Close - Provide a layby for vehicles to park off the carriageway - Prevent vehicles from driving over footpath

Disadvantages - Vehicles may still park outside No.17, sticking out into the carriageway - Vehicles may park side by side in the new layby resulting in a narrow carriageway - Expensive scheme

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2) Pinfold Close – Install double yellow lines around corner Costs Approximately £1,000 Following consultation with Environmental Services double yellow lines will only work in this area if the whole turning circle is available. Vehicles have a tendency to park behind one another at this location, preventing the refuse lorry from getting to the right angle to drive down the road. Removal of these vehicles will alleviate this problem

Advantages: - Acts as a deterrent for vehicles parking on the narrow section of Pinfold Close outside No.17 - Easy access to Pinfold Close - Low cost scheme Disadvantages - If not enforced it will have no effects on traffic as vehicles will start to park on the double yellow lines - Vehicles will be required to park else where

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3) A6121 Main Street - Installation of chicane between Pinfold Lane and Hall Lane Costs Approximately £5,000 The chicane has been proposed for vehicles exiting the South Luffenham towards Ketton, as the speed survey has demonstrated that the average speed of vehicles exiting the village is 2.4mph higher than those entering the village. This chicane may help to reduce vehicle speeds as they are travelling through and exiting the village.

Advantages: - Emergency services are able to travel faster around horizontal traffic calming measures compared to vertical treatments. This is on the strategic network and therefore vertical treatment would not be permitted - Cyclists can easily bypass the chicane separate from the traffic Disadvantages - Motor vehicles with priority are not required to reduce their speed - Motor vehicles without priority are not required to reduce their speed if there is no oncoming vehicles approaching - Motor vehicles without priority may race to the chicane before an oncoming vehicles approaches or swerve dangerously around the chicane - May cause long delays if there is increase vehicle traffic

4) School warning signs on A6121 £500

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5) Footpath extension on A6121 To tie into existing footpath on Main Street leading to Barrowden Lane There is a BT telegraph pole along this section of footpath, one of the telegraph poles will be in the center of the footpath; this will need to be relocated. The initial costs for BT to assess if the post can be relocated and what works are required costs approximately £1,000 Costs approximately £10,000 (footpath construction only) Relocation of telegraph pole £10,000 (approximate cost – if approved BT will visit site to provide quote of works)

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7 Recommendation The following schemes are recommended for construction:

Proposal Cost Option 1 – extend layby £20,000 Option 3 – install chicane on £5,000 eastern approach to South Luffenham Option 4 – Install Children £500 crossing signs Option 5 – footpath extension £10,000 (+£10,000 for the relocation of the BT post) Total Cost £45,500

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