Agenda item

The report before the Committee detailed responses to a consultation on Accident Reduction Programme schemes that had the approval of Transport for London for funding. The report outlined that a feasibility study was recently carried out to identify safety improvements and zebra crossing, humped zebra crossing, junction speed table, speed table, mini roundabout alteration with kerb build-out and junction alteration with narrow approaches are proposed to minimise accidents.

The report before the Committee detailed responses to a consultation for Accident Reduction Programme safety improvements on Rush Green Road.

The report identified safety improvements and humped pedestrian refuge, pedestrian refuges and speed tables are proposed to minimise accidents.

The following safety improvements along Rush Green Road were detailed to reduce vehicle speeds and minimise accidents:

·     Rush Green Road west of Barton Avenue - Humped pedestrian refuge with road marking changes.

·     Rush Green Road west of Clayton Road - Speed tables (2No.) with road marking changes.

·         Rush Green Road by Rush Green Gardens - Pedestrian refuge with road marking changes.

·         Rush Green Road west of Birkbeck Road - Pedestrian refuge with road marking changes.

·         Rush Green Road west of Lilac Gardens - Speed table with road marking changes.

During the debate, a Member suggested that there was a policy of putting humps on main roads, without any evidence base. The member questioned the effectiveness of existing humps, on main roads, stating that their effectiveness needed to be considered before new schemes are progressed.   A reference was made to a newspaper article from Somerset & Bath which found that accidents had gone up after the introduction of a scheme involving the introduction of road humps.

Officers explained that 3 to 4 years of data would be required to evaluate the effectiveness of speed humps and given that the majority of collisions were on main roads, the implication of such a suggestion would hold up further safety improvements for years.

Officers explained that the referenced newspaper article related to a factually different situation to the scheme now under consideration and held the opinion that the press had failed to report the case properly as there were issues in the statistical analysis used.

A proposal to recommend implementation of the scheme with the exclusion of speed humps was defeated 8 votes to 2 with one abstention.

Following the debate, the Committee RESOLVED to recommend to the Cabinet Member for Environment, Regulatory Services and Community Safety that the following safety improvements be implemented:

1.            Rush Green Road west of Barton Avenue (Plan No:QQ057-1)

-     Humped pedestrian refuge with road marking changes as shown.

2.            Rush Green Road west of Clayton Road (Plan No:QQ057-2)

Speed tables (2No.) with road marking changes as shown.

3.            Rush Green Road by Rush Green Gardens (Plan No:QQ057-3)

Pedestrian refuge with road marking changes as shown.

4.            Rush Green Road west of Birkbeck Road (Plan No:QQ057-4)

Pedestrian refuge with road marking changes as shown.

5.            Rush Green Road west of Lilac Gardens (Plan No. QQ057-5)

Speed table with road marking changes as shown.

Members noted that the estimated cost for implementation was £0.09m, which would be met from the Transport for London’s (TfL) 2017/18 Local Implementation Plan allocation for Accident Reduction Programme.

The vote to recommend the scheme was carried by 9 votes with 2 abstentions.