Agenda item

A) ACCIDENT REPORT FOR CROXTON KERRIAL

The Forum considered an update by the Director of Environment and Transport on the accident data for the village of Croxton Kerrial.  This update was introduced by Mr Crossland with a copy filed with the minutes.

The Chairman advised Members that the report highlighted that there had been a number of serious accidents, potential accidents and slight accidents in that area and that Leicestershire was unusual in that most of its road traffic accidents happen in the rural areas and not the built up areas, which is different from other Counties. 

Mr Crossland went through the report and highlighted paras 1-5 which show the accident history of the area up to May 2016 and advised that there had been 3 fatal accidents in that area in the last 18 months.  He stated that in para 6 onwards it details the action that has been taken. 

Mr Crossland explained that a VAS which had recently been installed had the trigger speed set at the National Speed limit, this has now been lowered to 45mph to alert drivers to slow down before approaching the bend.  He also highlighted para 7 which details the addition of the area of vegetation to the safety critical vegetation cutting programme to maintain visibility.  He also highlighted para 8 which states that the bends have been added to the surface dressing programme to have a higher skid resistance surface installed and this will take place when the weather improves, although in the meantime ‘slippery road’ signs will be placed on site.  

Mr Crossland highlighted para 10 and stated that the site of the fatal accident of November 2016 will continue to be monitored.

Mr Crossland referenced the recent Scrutiny Review Panel report which highlights the fact that the rural roads are more of a problem in Leicestershire.   He went on to say that the County Council are launching a campaign on the usage of average speed cameras in Leicestershire.  He also stated that the Department for Transport have confirmed it is the choice of the Local Authority whether to follow the Government guidance on this or not. 

Mr Crossland stated that Cabinet had decided to agree to a wider use of speed cameras due to the resource difficulties that the Police face in trying to deal with community requests for speed enforcement.

Cllr E Holmes BC stated that she was concerned about the speeding traffic down from the A1 towards Waltham.  She asked that as this is traffic coming from the A1 is there any funding available from the Highways Agency?  Mr Crossland answered that as it is traffic coming from an A road onto another A road there would be no additional funding.  Cllr Holmes went on to say that the A1 is a National Road and the A607 is a County Road.    Mr Crossland stated that the 2 networks have to work together, Highways England support network resilience but will not upgrade roads just because they are used as a diversionary route. 

Cllr S Lumley stated that he though the flashing VASs were a good idea and asked if he could have a VAS on Thorpe Road. 

Cllr B Rhodes stated that he has a large number of complaints about speeding traffic at Thorpe Arnold and a significant number of complaints about Waltham and Croxton Kerrial, and pointed out that this area does seem to stand out with its accident history and asked whether it crossed the threshold for further capital funding.  Mr Crossland stated that it was an issue that needed to be looked at and compared with other sites. He also stated that VASs may work but certain accidents are due to driver behaviour and the fact that local motorists know the area and the bends. 

Cllr J T Orson stated that as money is tight, the solution is to put the anti-skid surface down but not communicate this to motorists.  Mr Crossland advised that this is the normal surface dressing which reinstates the surface texture and helps with the grip and is not advertised.

Mr Crossland asked Members to bear in mind driver capability issues, often vehicles are capable of  negotiating bends unfortunately motorists sometimes aren’t and in that case enforcement is the only solution. 

The Chair asked if this could be an item on the next Forum agenda.  Mr Crossland stated that there was no real point as no valid conclusions could be drawn, it would need to be after 3 years but he confirmed that this area would be included in the current review of all roads in the County.

RECOMMENDATIONS

i) That the update of the Director of Environment and Transport be noted; and

ii) That this area be included in the current review of all roads in the County.