September 15th, 2012 |
A Bumpy Road On Highways
One of the humps in Magnolia Road installed by residents
The Rochford District Local Highways Panel met yesterday.
This is the panel where 5 County Councillors and 5 District Councillors are supposed to get together to spend about half a million pounds a year on minor and medium-sized highways schemes. This does NOT include road maintenance.
Here’s a few details:
The only County Councillor to actually turn up was Tracy Chapman, and she played an active and useful part in the meeting. However Stephen Castle wasn’t there – he has missed all three meetings now, which is disappointing. All five District Councillors turned up – Toby Mountain, Gill Lucas-Gill, Chris Black, Mike Steptoe and Keith Hudson. Also Rayleigh Town Councillors Cheryl Roe and Ian Ward visited.
The most difficult problem was Magnolia Road Hawkwell. This is a publicly-adopted byway – which means it is open to traffic but doesn’t have to be maintained by the County Council. However because of the speed of traffic here in a very narrow lane, the residents themselves installed some speed humps. (this was after two dogs had been killed). This has sorted out the speeding problem, but one resident has complained to the ombudsman and because of this, at some stage these humps are going to have to be removed. Tracy Chapman was extremely unhappy about this and said she would be lying in the road if the County come to take them away.
Graffiti
Graffiti came up as an issue and will hopefully be tackled now by the Highways Rangers. Chris Black and Mike Steptoe both identified places where graffiti needed to be removed.
Toby Mountain made some progress in sorting out problems at Tesco’s in London Road , Rayleigh.
The panel agreed not to spend any money on bus shelters.
A vehicle and pedestrian survey has just been carried out in Hullbridge Road to see if we can get a pedestrian crossing opposite Lubards Farm.
It’s still possible that we will get a proper roundabout at the Hullbridge Road / Mortimer Road / Rawreth Lane junction but nothing has been agreed yet.
Chris Black asked for figures next time on how much money the panel has already spent.
Ron Oatham
Trevor Parrett
Bruce Smart
Chris Stanley
Pam Waldie
Elena Black
Rochford District Council carries out grass cutting on behalf of the County Council.
If you see a grass verge that badly needs cutting, you can report it
This is the official master document for planning policy in our district! To download it, click here
September 15th, 2012 at 10:09
If these humps are to stay, street lighting along this road should be improved and/or there should be be better markings on the speedhumps. I have twice tripped over these when walking along them at night. Were the dogs killed by a ‘speeding’ motorist or by an owner not keeping their dogs under proper control?
September 15th, 2012 at 10:09
Sean, you are right on the first point. To have humps here legally there needs to be a proper road surface, proper lighting and a 30 mph speed limit. The costs of this would exceed £100,000.
Regarding the poor dogs, I would have thought that the residents clearly think that speed was the problem, otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered to create the humps.
September 17th, 2012 at 12:09
Glad to read that the Highway Rangers should soon be removing the yoof art, now we need the Lone Ranger to sort out the yoofless yoofs…..
September 20th, 2012 at 08:09
Pleased to see the 2 points for my area are still on the agenda. Thanks to everyone for keeping them in the lists.
November 10th, 2012 at 06:11
Speed humps installed by residents due to idiots using road as race track. Vast majority of residents want them to stay – one resident with council connections wants them out. So much for democracy. Money could be better spent elsewhere rather than on removing them.
November 11th, 2012 at 12:11
@ Lincoln Road Resident – We have exactly the same issue in Hawkwell with the removal of privately installed speed humps which has very reluctantly been the decision of Essex County Council Highways. Like you there will be the cost for removal. Reason? One influential complainant. I’ll refer the complaints about speeding to them to deal with !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 12th, 2012 at 07:11
Thanks John [HEAVILY EDITED FOR LEGAL REASONS]