Communications with Wiltshire Traffic Engineers Department - A30 Shaftesbury-Salisbury route - May 2022
Q. I live in a village called Sutton Mandeville near the A30. There is a cluster of about 10 houses including 3 farms, a B&B and a business park with cafe along this stretch of road and no speed restriction. It can be very dangerous for pedestrians and motorists. There have been numerous accidents over the past few years. It can also be very noisy particularly when motorbikes go through. Other villages on the A30 have speed restrictions in place where the A30 goes through the village but not Sutton Mandeville. How do we request this is changed?
A. Unfortunately it would not be possible for the speed limit on the A30 through Sutton Mandeville to be reduced to 30mph.
In 2006 the Department for Transport issued new guidance about the setting of speed limits and required that all highway authorities undertake a review of speed limits on all A & B roads under its jurisdiction. Wiltshire Council duly undertook this review and the results were published in 2009. This review was undertaken independently by the council’s then consultants Mouchel. I have enclosed a plan showing the recommendations for the speed limits on the A30 in the vicinity of Sutton Mandeville.
You will note that the recommendation was that the national speed limit of 60mph hour was appropriate for this location. Additional guidance on the setting of speed limits was issued by the Department for Transport in 2013 but the criteria for their introduction remains the same. The setting of speed limits is undertaken in accordance with the guidance found in Circular 01/2013, which can be viewed on the government website: Setting Local Speed Limits.
The key criteria for the introduction of a 30mph speed limit in a rural environment is there must be a frontage density of 20 or more properties over a distance of 600m. This criteria is not met with regard to the A30 in Sutton Mandeville.
Following the completion of the aforementioned review process it was agreed by the Cabinet Member for Highways that speed limits on A and B class roads would not be subject to re-review unless substantive changes to the layout of the road had occurred. That remains the current position of Wiltshire Council on the basis that if no changes have occurred to the layout of the road and there have been no changes to the criteria for setting speed limits then any re-review of the speed limit is unlikely to recommend a change.
However, you are free to contact your local Parish Council and request that they consider formally requesting a speed limit review through the Community Area Transport Group (CATG)* process. If your request is supported by the Parish Council then it would be considered by the South West Wiltshire CATG. If the request is subsequently supported by the CATG then the Council would engage its current consultants, Atkins, to independently assess the speed limit and determine if the speed limit on the A30 could be reduced to 40 or 50mph in accordance with the guidance in Circular 1/13.
The cost of the review would be £2,500, with the costs split on a 75% / 25% basis between the CATG and Parish Council** respectively.
* CATG now renamed Local Highways & Footways Improvement Group (LHFIG)
** Would require a commitment from Parish Council funds of £616 for feasibility study.
Communication from Wiltshire Councillor (Nabil Najjar) - February 2022
CVSFWS (Chalke Valley Speed and Flood Working Group).
As we all know speeding continues to be a major issue in the Fovant & Chalke Valley Division (including Sutton Mandeville), and despite some progress, more needs to be done.
With that in mind, I want to bring reps from each of my 16 PCs together to form a Speed Working Group, through which we can set out a division-wide plan to address speeding and speed limits across the Chalke Valley. Speaking with one voice on this will be very helpful, and I will bring in our highways teams and Cabinet member to engage once we've developed our requests.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend our first meeting earlier this month. I was so pleased to see so many parishes represented, and that so many of our priorities are aligned. Thank you all for your support.
Thank you also to those colleagues who have already sent through a list of priorities, and to those who have provided advice on the process going forward. If you have not already, please do send through your lists, as I am currently preparing a spreadsheet, grouping each Parish by desired output (20mph, SID, improved signage, flood defences, drainage etc.) and I will share this with you all once I have had all the responses. This will, I hope, give us some clarity on how we make our requests.
I am meeting our Cabinet member for highways and flooding today, and I will be asking him to attend the next meeting of the group, which I will plan for mid-March, in line with his availability, and I have also contacted the OPCC to see if a representative can attend that meeting, or the one after. If I do not get a response, I will call the PCC next week.
I have also had a few questions about formal structure or organisation for the working group. My intention is to have our next meeting with the Cabinet member present, and use that as a way to articulate our shared concerns, and ask for a clear steer on how we can deliver on this. Once we receive that feedback, I will come up with a list of actions (which may include things ranging from preparing CATG/LHFIG proposals, securing and demonstrating public backing, best practice sharing etc.) which I very much hope some of you would be kind enough to support.
This is a very different approach to what is normally done at WC, in fact I don’t know of another Cllr or division which has done this before, but I hope it will deliver the results we are all hoping for.
Best wishes,
Nabil
Councillor Nabil Najjar
Traffic Survey Results - C24 Chicksgrove Road, Lower Chickgrove
November 2021 - commissioned by Wiltshire Council Transport Planning:
C24 Chicksgrove Road (east)
C24 Chicksgrove Road (West)
These survey points showed that speeds along the C24 at Lower Chicksgrove (Tisbury - Teffont road), averaged 33-39mph and thus were well within national speed limit restrictions.
The conclusion is that no interventions are warranted along this route and that the topography and nature of the narrow roads themselves limit speeds.
Extract Report of Nabil Najjar, Wiltshire Councillor - September 2021
When I was first elected, I set out my key priorities, one of which was a focus on speeding and road safety, and we have already made major progress on this. At the September Area Board meeting, we successfully lobbied for funding to buy and install three new speed indicator devices (SIDs) in Fovant. The SIDs will play a major role in helping us identify exactly where and when speeding through the village is at its worst, and this data can be handed over to the police to make sure we enforce the speed limits.
I have had conversations with our newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner, and he has assured me that, where we can demonstrate a speeding problem, he will make resources available to enforce the law.
I am also working with other Parishes, including Barford St Martin, to try and bring this solution to some of the other villages in the division.
By working with our Community Area Transport Group (CATG)*, we have funded ‘unsuitable for HGV’ signs for Sutton Mandeville and Swallowcliffe, helping keep heavy vehicles off our narrow, single-track roads, improving road safety and keeping our roads in decent condition.
* CATG now renamed Local Highways & Footways Improvement Group (LHFIG)
Communications with Wiltshire Traffic Engineers Department - 20mph limit proposal Sutton Row /Hill - September 2021
Q. Following requests from a number of residents within the parish at last evening's Parish Council meeting Councillors have asked me to write to ask about the best way to pursue 20 mph signage. Sutton has a widely dispersed population with contiguous housing, I believe , in just 3 areas - Sutton Row, single carriageway with passing places, Sutton Hill and Panters Lane. Other lanes such as Glasses Lane are also single carriageway only.
On all roads only the national speed limit applies and efforts for speed restriction in the past have always failed although Councillors realise criteria and policy may change frequently.
Councillors would appreciate your advice either on how to proceed with residents' requests or to be able to explain to them why 20mph signage is not appropriate for the area.
A. The council’s policy on the introduction of 20mph speed restrictions is enclosed (see below). In short the key criteria for the introduction of a 20mph speed restriction is that the average speed of vehicles travelling along a road must be less than 24mph.
A CATG* issue would need to be formally raised requesting the introduction of a 20mph speed limit. If supported by the CATG a speed limit assessment would then need to be undertaken to determine if the roads met the criteria for a 20mph speed restriction. The cost of the assessment is £2,500, which would be split 75% to the CATG and 25% to the Parish Council**. Obviously the results of the assessment wouldn’t necessarily result in the recommendation of the introduction of a 20mph speed limit.
* CATG now renamed Local Highways & Footways Improvement Group (LHFIG)
** Would require a commitment from Parish Council funds of £616 for feasibility study.
See Also: