Lindsay Road / St Aldhelms Road Junction
AGENDA ITEM 7
BOROUGH OF POOLE
CANFORD CLIFFS AND PENN HILL AREA COMMITTEE – WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2011
REPORT OF HEAD OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
INFORMATION ONLY ITEM
LINDSAY ROAD / ST ALDHELMS ROAD JUNCTION
1.BACKGROUND
1.1At the 27 July 2011 meeting of this committee the following issues were raised at the Open Forum in relation to Lindsay Road / St Aldhelms Road junction :
- Increased volume of traffic using Lindsay Road, due to success of Lindsay Road / Leicester Road traffic lights, resulting in this junction being virtually blocked at busy times. At other times traffic speeds 35-50 mph
- Route now Primary Traffic Corridor
- Request the following :
-Review of junction now that the effects of the Lindsay Road / Leicester Road signals are known
-Smart traffic lights to slow traffic down
-Mini roundabout as at Kingsbridge Road / Woodside Road
-As a minimum refuge west and east of Lindsay Road for pedestrians to cross, particularly with new development in St Aldhelm Road
-St Aldhelm Road has Victoria School and Park Manor Residential Home and therefore considerable pedestrian movements
2.INFORMATION
2.1The South East Dorset Local Transport Plan 2006-11 included the aim of providing more reliable journey times within the conurbation. This was to be achieved by means of focussing on Prime Transport Corridors, the first of which was the main route between Poole and Bournemouth Town Centres. The corridor concept looks at improvements not only on the main A35 but also on the parallel alternative routes of :
- Ashley Road ( Sea View – Redlands roundabout )
- Station Road – Penn Hill Avenue – Leicester Road – Lindsay Road
This is on the basis that improvement to parallel routes will enable better traffic flow along the corridor as a whole.
2.2Through the Transportation Capital Programme, funded by the Government to achieve the aims set out in the Local Transport Plan, a number of improvements have been delivered, namely :
- Ashley Cross and Commercial Road / Station Road
- Lindsay Road / Leicester Road
- Penn Hill junction
2.3As part of this programme in 2006 a scheme was developed to relieve traffic congestion at Lindsay Road / St Aldhelms Road by means of localised widening and the creation of right turning lanes. However when members of the Transportation Advisory Group considered this scheme they heard the difficulties that the residents of the culs-de-sac side of St Aldhelms Road would experience in making a right turn out, together with increased difficulties for pedestrians. On this basis the resolution was to defer the scheme until the effects of the lights at Lindsay road / Leicester Road junction were known.
2.4While we are now on the next Local Transport Plan (LTP3) the main route between Poole and Bournemouth is still of importance in terms of seeking more reliable journey times. However one thing that has changed is that the level of funding for the capital programme is very much reduced due to current economic climate, evidenced by the fact that in 2006/07 £1.38m was available for improvements, whereas in 2011/12 this had reduced to £0.92m.
2.5 The result of this reduction in funding is inevitably less work on the ground. In the approved capital programme for this year there was only £150,000 identified for works on the corridor, allocated originally to Ashley Road.
2.6As the indications are that this current low level of year or year funding will continue – indeed it may well reduce even further – it is therefore unfortunately very unlikely that we will be in a position to look at Lindsay Road / St Aldhelms Road again in the foreseeable future.
2.7The South East Dorset Traffic Study was completed for the authorities of Poole, Bournemouth, and Dorset last year, which has been used to support abid to the Government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund for improvements along the main A35 corridor - the results of which will be known in June 2012.While the improvements are primarily aimed at the main bus routes in terms of increasing patronage, it is anticipated that this will in turn ultimately reduce overall congestion between the two main town centres.
2.8Regarding the other issues raised:
(a)Traffic flows on Lindsay Road : 24 hour average flows 16,893 per day in 2011 compared with 17,064 per day in 2006
(b) Pedestrian crossing facility, eg pedestrian refuge. Within the Transportation Capital programme funding is provided for pedestrian crossing facilities across the borough, typically £70,000 per annum. Not surprisingly the demand for crossings is greater than this amount, and therefore a list is maintained of locations where pedestrian crossing facilities are requested, prioritised considering a number of factors such as volume of traffic, number of pedestrians ( in particular the elderly and children ), closeness of essential services such as doctors, the difficulty in crossing the road and whether there is an alternative crossing facility nearby. Lindsay Road / St Aldhelms Road is on this list but currently shows a low score. However given the changes that have taken place here it is proposed to re-assess this during the current year, and if the position improves to within the top three ( typically the number of locations provided every year ) then it will be included in a future years’ programme.
Julian McLaughlin
Head of Transportation Services
Name and telephone number of Officer contact :
Steve Tite (01202 262020)
5 October 2011