Buckinghamshire County Council
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abcde Buckinghamshire County Council Minutes WYCOMBE LOCAL COMMITTEE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE WYCOMBE LOCAL COMMITTEE HELD ON THURSDAY 24 JANUARY 2008 IN LANE END CONFERENCE CENTRE, CHURCH ROAD, LANE END HP14 3HH, COMMENCING AT 6.17 PM AND CONCLUDING AT 8.36 PM MEMBERS PRESENT Representative Council, Organisation or Society Mr Z Mohammed (Vice-Chairman) Buckinghamshire County Council Mr C Ditta Mr F Sweatman Mr P Cartwright Mr D Watson (Chairman) Mrs V Letheren Mr J Herschel Chepping Wycombe Parish Council Mr J Hambly Ellesborough Parish Council Mr S Appleby Great and Little Hampden Parish Council Mrs S Henson Hambleden Parish Council Mr D Davies Hughenden Parish Council Mrs S Wright Lane End Parish Council Mr G O'Neill Longwick Parish Council Mr W Bendyshe-Brown Princes Risborough Town Council Mr M Penny Stokenchurch Parish Council Ms V Smith West Wycombe Parish Council Officers Mr I Reed Buckinghamshire County Council Mrs S Khan Mr E Meek Ms C Burslem Mr K Moloughney Mrs M Howe Mr J Charlton Mr P Ahluwalia Mr S Orchard Mr T Blackmore Ms F Broadbent Mrs D Hansen Bradenham Parish Council Mr R C Harboro Ibstone Parish Council Mr D Instow Flackwell Heath Residents Association Mrs B Wallace Little Marlow Parish Council Ms J Mann Wycombe District Council Mr D Jarman Hughenden Parish Council Mr D Humphries Thames Valley Police Traffic Management Shurmer Senior Transport Officer 1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE / CHANGES IN MEMBERSHIP Apologies were received from County Councillors David Carroll, Lesley Clarke, Richard Pushman, David Shakespeare, Robert Woollard, Councillor Storey Piddington and Wheeler End, Councillor Walker Hambleden Parish Council and Helen Evans British Horse Society. 2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were none. 3 MINUTES The minutes of the meeting held on 18 October copies of which had been circulated previously, were approved after the following changes had been made: the name of Mrs Barbara Wallace was changed on the list of attendees as a representative of Little Marlow Parish Council and not Wycombe Association of Local Councils, on page 5 the sentence ‘the Arriva 754 bus route’ was changed to read the ‘7.54am Arriva bus service’, and on Page 8 Robin Thomas and not Robin Evans from Wycombe District Council was welcomed to the meeting. Ian Reed reported that Mike Appleyard had chaired a public meeting in Marlow in November and that as a result there will be an improvement in bus services. Members were advised that the Cabinet Member for Transportation approved the key report regarding Phase Two of the Street Lighting Programme in December 2007. The enhancement works will now take place from January until March/April. The street lighting columns will be turned off in April /May 2008. 4 MATTERS ARISING During a discussion the following points were made: • A member requested that more detailed information be provided on how joint work under the Pathfinder initiative would operate. (Action: Ian Reed) • It was noted that discussions have taken place about the possibility of extending the Park and Ride service because the service currently ceases at approximately 7pm. • A member expressed concern that only 56 days notice had been provided of the opening of the Eden project and he suggested that it would have been useful if a report had been presented to the meeting. The member noted that there will be a large multi screen cinema and a bowling alley. The infrequent bus service during the evenings could det er people from applying for jobs. This was noted. Members requested that a copy of the bus service is distributed with the minutes. ( Action: Si Khan) (Chairman’s note after the meeting the following response was received from Dave Roberts – ‘Arriva have come to an agreement with Multiplex whereby they have made a commercial decision to enhance most of the town centre services by a couple of extra journeys in the evenings for when Eden opens. At present we cannot be specific with regards to which services will be enhanced and are waiting for this information from Arriva which we hope to receive by next week. We will also be extending the Park & Ride service which will mean the last bus to leave the Town Centre will be 8.15pm. This is to cater for the Eden Shopping Centre customers and staff. Unfortunately, we cannot extend the service to cover the late opening times for the bowling alley and cinema. This extra cost is being funded by the Developer Contribution Fund. Although normally to advertise and change bus timetables there is a requirement of 56 days notice, however, the operator (Arriva) can put a case for Short Notice Registration and as long as the Council support this the Traffic Commission will generally accept this)’. • A member noted that there had not been a response to his question raised at the previous meeting why work had been undertaken on the A4010. (Action: Mark Averill to investigate and report back to the next meeting). • A member congratulated the County Council on the quality of the repairs that recently been made on the A40 near Saunderton. 5 QUESTION TIME (INCLUDING PARISH AND TOWN COUNCIL QUESTIONS) / PETITIONS (a) Petitions (i) Petition organised by the children of Bowerdean Road, High Wycombe ‘The undersigned children, residents and supporters petition Buckinghamshire County Council to slow down traffic in Bowerdean Road. We are scared to cross the road and need traffic calming measures including speed humps.’ Reply The Casualty Reduction Team is informed by the Police of all personal injury collisions that occur on the highway. It is the responsibility of that team to make investigations into the type of crashes that occur with a view to recommending any potential changes to the highway. This may include making small improvements to the signing and white lines through to designing major junction realignment schemes. Bowerdean Road is a 1.1 km long urban road with streetlights and is subject to a 30 mph speed limit. In the 36 months prior to the end of October 2007, there have been 11 collisions resulting in 13 casualties. The casualties involved 1 fatality, 3 seriously injured and 7 slightly injured people four collisions involved pedestrians aged 10, 12, 18 and 40. The collisions have occurred along the whole length of Bowerdean Road rather than ‘clustered’ at any specific location. Six of the collisions occurred on the shorter section of the road, beyond Totteridge Road. A study carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory identified that 95% of all crashes involve an element of human error whereas the road environment contributes 2%, and defective vehicles contribute 3%. From investigation of contributory factors involved in the collisions in Bowerdean Road the main factor identified by the Police in 6 out of the 11 crashes, for both pedestrians and drivers was ‘Failing to look properly’. Exceeding the speed limit or travelling too fast for the conditions was not identified as a contributory factor in any of the collisions. Whilst accepting that the number of casualties on Bowerdean Road are relatively high, the uniqueness of each of these crashes makes it impossible to offer a solution which would reduce the potential for further casualties to occur. There are however, a number of initiatives, including developing school travel plans and safer routes to schools that the County Council and the Police offer to local people that aim to raise awareness of safety to road users. The Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership (TVSRP) operates a scheme where requests from the public about speeding are considered for enhanced enforcement, either by Police presence/speed checks or mobile camera enforcement. A Community Concern request was registered by Mark Averill, Acting Infrastructure Manager for Transportation at Buckinghamshire County Council at the request of local residents. This was submitted to the TVSRP to consider for speed enforcement. Following investigations into the suitability of the site, from both the Police and County Council, the TVSRP will make a decision as to whether enforcement is the most appropriate solution. This process is underway. However, on 19 November 2007, in advance of a decision on the Community Concern process, the local neighbourhood policing team, did attempt to carry out speed checks but found that the road was a difficult location for enforcement due to the undulating nature of the road and natural traffic calming caused by parked cars. The policy of the County Council is to consider the installation of road humps on the public highway as a casualty reduction measure, where excessive speed is recorded as a major causation factor in the reported incidents. County funded road hump schemes are not able to be introduced simply as traffic calming measures. Although we are not currently able to directly fund a scheme in Bowerdean Road, Wycombe District Council’s, High Wycombe Town Committee may be able to fund a minor traffic calming scheme by applying to the County Council for funding in the way of an interest free loan, repayable over three years, through the traffic-calming budget (previously the forbearance fund). If speeding is still considered to be the main concern the Council’s ‘Make the Commitment’ scheme may be suitable. The scheme asks drivers to sign a pledge that they will try to keep to the speed limits at all times. The idea behind this scheme is that it will focus a driver’s attention on the speed at which they travel and help them maintain a lower speed. This initiative is most effective when the majority of users are local residents who travel the road regularly and therefore leaflets regarding this scheme could be distributed within the local area alongside further publicity.