Meeting documents

RADSTOCK ROAD RAGE: Statement to Cabinet by Cllr Dr Jackson 5 March 2008

It seems ironic that as I came out to address you on the problem of vehicles speeding down Bath Old Road and Frome Road this afternoon, I should encounter a car `written off' by a careless motorist crossing the notorious double roundabout in Radstock to go up the Frome Road. However it is only a matter of time until we have another fatality on one of the `gateway roads' to Radstock. Two weeks ago vehicles come down both roads were demolished when their drivers took corners too fast and crashed into stone walls. Three cars in two years have somersaulted over the bend and wall at the end of Waldegrave Terrace and into a Bath Old Road garden. No less than twenty times in five years the owner of St Hugh's bungalow, Frome Road has had her garden sprayed with car parts.

Both roads have the same steep gradient, and minor roads with a `blind exit'.

Something has to be done now!

Your officer, Tasos Paploucas has been commendably assiduous in examining solutions and consulting the public while I have a wadge of letters suggesting solutions. Some measures, such as renewing yellow lines and slow signs on the roads would surely not cost much, but without the cabinet's support, I fear a larger sum to achieve a proper solution will not be forthcoming. We all know how much speed cameras cost.

We have seen what can be done with the main street in Peasedown St John, but since a by pass is clearly impossible, please consider seriously a solution for Radstock.

The situation can only get worse.

Last summer during the controversy over the proposed new traffic scheme in Radstock, it seemed a good idea for the Radstock Action Group to join forces with members of Meadow View Residents, Radstock Residents Association and friends to find out exactly how many vehicles converge on Radstock down the Frome Road, the New Bath Road, Somervale Road, Wells Road and Kilmersdon Road. What could be produced is only a snapshot, but the date chosen, Tuesday 17 July 2007, is only two days short of that in the NRR/Bellway planning application data, Friday 19 July 2005. After all, when objectors to the scheme, supported by the South West Regional Transport Plan, argue that there has been a substantial increase year on year, and the supporters say the scheme will work because a computer traffic flow model tells them so, it seems reasonable to establish what the facts are. Two peak periods and a quiet period were chosen. The types of vehicles were also recorded.

7.30-9.30 11.30-12.30 15.00- 18.00

Frome Road 1152 346 1688 (incl. 4 tractors)

Survey 1 July 2005 784 501 (16-18.00 )

Bath New Road 1482 657 2398

Somervale Road N/A 529 N/A

Wells Road N/A 435 1640

Survey 1 July 05 872 N/A 883 ( 16-18.00 only)

Kilmersdon Road 347 134 489

Figures for 1 July 2005 supplied by Deborah Porter.

More detail could be shown about the ebb and flow within the peak periods because of the school run. Flow into Radstock only was surveyed to avoid counting vehicles twice, as far as possible. The sheer volume down the Frome Road is staggering, with an average of 560 vehicles at peak times. At the beginning of July 2007 Cllr Allan Hall and I walked round Radstock and up the Frome Road with B&NES officials, agreeing measures to increase pedestrian safety and simplify road signage. Two new pedestrian crossings on Frome Road may calm traffic, and make it possible to cross safely when the pavement runs out, but apparently there are Highways Act objections to this. We have to find a solution, preferably before there is a proposed new traffic system and a housing development which will bring at least 400 more residents' vehicles per day into Radstock