Agenda and minutes

It was confirmed that the meeting would take place in public.

This item was rescheduled from the Petition Hearing meeting with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Transportation and Recycling held on 22 May 2013, due to the unavailability of a British Sign Language Interpreter.

Concerns, comments and suggestions raised at the meeting included the following:

• Speeding cars could be seen from the petitioners’ home in Hillside Road, as they approached the junction at the start of Hillside Road, via Pinner Road, through Potter Street.
• Cars had been witnessed speeding down the hill at 55mph and often drivers had been forced to slam on their breaks, as they came off the sharp curve in the road (blind spot), only then realising that there were cars parked on the road. 
• From the other side of the road, residents experienced real difficulty in trying to cross the road and were very anxious about their safety when waiting at the bus stop.
• White stones had been placed on the verge area by residents to highlight and indicate the existence of the verge.
• Concerned that as motorists drove up the hill, they would be unaware of the blind spot and the loss of visibility of vehicles approaching from the other side of the hill.
• Suggested installation of the ‘raised tables’ device which control traffic, similar to those recently installed in Cuckoo Hill, Pinner. Compared to the number of houses in Cuckoo Hill, there were far more houses in Hillside Road, which had bungalows along both sides of the road with many of the residents were elderly people.

• Suggested also for consideration; a 30mph moving vehicle activated sign and issuing fines to drivers who exceeded the limit.

• Concerned that many residents had given up on finding an acceptable solution to the problem, as this had been an on-going issue for a long time.
• Urged the Cabinet Member for a satisfactory solution to be found to make the Hillside Road safe.

A Ward Councillor spoke and raised the following points:

• Thanked the Cabinet Member and officers for holding the petition hearing in Northwood Hills.
• Advised that the issue of finding effective traffic calming measures on Hillside Road had been a problem for many years, but acknowledged that the Council took road safety issues very seriously.
• Suggested that other solutions had been tried in the past, such as installing 30mph road signs on the road, which was approached from the boarder of Harrow through to Pinner Hill, dipping sharply, before coming up again and veering off to the right at the same time and bending round into a valley.
• Vehicles tended to speed, as they went down the hill and came into difficulty, as they approached a sharp bend as they drove up the hill.
• Access to St John’s school added to the traffic congestion during term time, as the main entrance to the school was via Hillside Road. Numerous petitions had been raised to address the issue of congestion and road safety in the area.
• The problem of congestion was further compounded with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.