Agenda and draft minutes

None.

It was confirmed that all items of business would be considered in public.

The lead petitioner addressed the Cabinet Member and made the following points:

• The petitioner thanked Councillor Riley for attending
• The petitioner claimed that she was representing 320+ children aged from 7 to 11 years old
• The petitioner asked rhetorically “while the officer was writing his report, did he have the opportunity to stand in Ladygate Lane to witness first-hand what drop-off and pick-up was like for the children going to school?”
• Councillor Corthorne had met with the petitioner on many instances and therefore had a good understanding of petitioners’ concerns regarding the safety of children crossing this very busy road
• The safety of children crossing was particularly prevalent at pick-up time when most children came out of school all at once at around 3:30pm
• At drop-off there was a wider window in terms of time frame to get to school
• It was at pick-up that there is an extremely high density of children crossing the road to get home all at once
• Parents and/ or carers parked on double yellow lines and in some instances double parked, blocking the road. They also parked on kerbs, blocking residents’ driveways
• On paragraph 3 of the officer’s report, a safe place to cross would also be beneficial for patients visiting the doctor's surgery, many of whom were elderly
• On paragraph 5, if the zebra crossing, which was located directly opposite the Infant’s school main entrance, had been built halfway between the two schools, so that children from both schools could benefit from a safe crossing in the road, this hearing may not have been necessary. It would have been a cost-effective and fairer way of providing the children of both schools with a safe way to get to school. From personal experience, it was not a practical solution for the children from Whiteheath Junior School to walk all the way to the entrance of the Infant school to cross the road and then have to make their way all the way back to their school. During the school run, every minute counted. Walking 250m to the pedestrian crossing and then all the way back again, especially with the younger children attending the Junior school, was not convenient and would add 7-10 minutes to the school run in the mornings, depending on the age of the children.  Driving around the borough, including Ruislip, Uxbridge, Ickenham and Pinner, among others, Whiteheath Junior School was one of only a couple, if not the only school without a zebra crossing close to the school.
• One paragraph 6, the safety concerns in this petition were not with the school’s separate dedicated entrance, Whiteheath Avenue, but having to cross one of the main arteries into school, Ladygate Lane, to get to the separate entrance, where there were currently little or no safety measures for children crossing this busy road. It was wonderful to hear of all the great road safety initiatives, but again, these were predominantly concentrated in Whiteheath Avenue. With regards to the voluntary ‘one-way’ system, a good  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

The lead petitioner addressed the Cabinet Member and made the following points:

• Residents were increasingly concerned about the speed of vehicles traveling down Grosvenor Avenue
• People seemed to be using the road as a shortcut from Kingshill Avenue to Lansbury Drive, avoiding the traffic lights at Lansbury Drive
• There had been a few incidents recently:
  • When someone was fixing a telegraph pole, a speeding van caught a wire which pulled him down and resulted in a dislocated shoulder
  • A dog walker was crossing the road and a speeding car caught the lead, dragging the dog up the road and causing £8,000 of vet bills
  • At the junction of Weymouth Road and Grosvenor Avenue, amongst a number of incidents a neighbour had his car written off because a car pulled out of Weymouth Road without looking and caused a collision
  • The entrance to Grosvenor playing fields was at that junction, where young people were dropped off and there were dog walkers, allotments and the entrance to the Hillingdon trail
• The worst times of day were 06:00-09:00, 15:00-19:00 and late in the evening when boy racers sped down the road
• It was not only residents who parked in the road, but also parents who were going to Grosvenor playing fields
• Residents would prefer to have parking restrictions rather than speed tables to slow traffic down when traveling up the road from Kingshill Avenue before the junction of Weymouth Road
• At the bottom of the road, although there were double yellow lines people cannot see around the corner and people tended to speed which had led to a neighbour’s car being shunted into a garden
• The petitioner sat on the Metropolitan Police Ward Panel and this had been discussed with one of the PCs who had now completed a course with a speed gun
• The petition signatories were from different sections of the road and included young families

The Cabinet Member asked and the petitioner clarified that when they referred to restrictions, they were talking about width restrictions.

Councillor Darran Davies addressed the Cabinet Member as Ward Councillor:

• The petitioner had the full support of the local community, and the Safer Neighbourhood Team had already carried out several speed operations on the road, underscoring the seriousness of the issue
• Grosvenor Avenue had experienced a number of accidents, particularly at the lower end, on the bend where several cars had crashed through resident’s windows
• The alarming pattern coupled with the recent incident where a telecom engineer was injured highlighted the ongoing danger that speeding vehicles posed to residents and those working in the area
• Meaningful action was required
• The road was also used as a main travel route for SEN transport towards Hedgewood School, and therefore the safety of vulnerable passengers was at risk
• Given the specific challenges of the road, traditional speed tables may not be suitable due to concerns about vibration and noise. Therefore, it was proposed that chicanes be installed which would slow traffic
• Width restrictions at the junction of Grosvenor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

The lead petitioner addressed the Cabinet Member and made the following points:

• Part way up the road was a width restriction and part of the road was one-way
• People used the traffic lights as a game of chicken or a starting point for a race up Chiltern View Road. They drove across from Cowley Mill Road, across the traffic lights and up Chiltern View Road at speed
• The petitioner had witnessed a vehicle speeding down the road this evening
• Speeding happened on a regular basis
• The one-way section was often ignored despite the signposting
• Whitehall Infant and Junior Schools and Uxbridge High School were nearby and one child had been hurt on Cowley Road a number of years ago
• All of the parking was down one side of Chiltern View Road which allowed enough room for speeding
• A chicane may solve some of the issues

Officers noted the one-way section and that police had commented on the signage. One of the recommendations was to do surveys which can log speed, direction of travel, time of day, and type of vehicle. This would establish the extent to which, as the petitioner had suggested, some drivers deliberately ignore the one-way restrictions. It was possible to amend the parking arrangements but this would need to be consulted on.

The Cabinet Member asked when the section of the road was made to be one-way and what the reason for this was. Officers noted that the section of the road had been one-way for a long time and was to deal with rat running. Making the whole road one-way would have implications for deliveries and would need residents’ agreement. One-way streets also often had unintended consequences such as speeding.

Speed surveys would provide evidence of the speeding. Altering the parking provision could slow down traffic.

It was noted that there was an existing parking management scheme.

RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Member for Property, Highways and Transport:

1)    Met with petitioners and listened to their request for “Traffic Calming Measures on Chiltern View Road” Uxbridge; and

2)    Asked officers to commission independent 24/7 speed and traffic surveys on Chiltern View Road at locations agreed with petitioners and Ward Councillors.