Agenda item

Councillor Carole Melvin attended the meeting and spoke as Ward Councillor.

Concerns and suggestions from petitioners included the following:

·         The number of people in attendance showed the strength of feeling residents had about road safety in Northgate.

·         The request was to reduce speeding in the road and enforcement of the no right turn onto Ducks Hill Road to be undertaken.

·         The Ducks Hill Road and Northgate junction was a known traffic black spot.

·         Motorists flout the no right turn regularly, without thought for others.

·         Examples were provided of the near misses and accidents that had occurred at the junction of Ducks Hill Road /Northgate and in Northgate itself.

·         A letter had been received from the local Police Sergeant advising that a camera was required at this junction to monitor the situation.

·         Felt that the signage in the area needed to be increased to highlight the no right turn and reduce speeding in the area.

·         Suggested that the area could be made a 20 mph zone.

A Ward Councillor attended and made the following points.

·         Supported the petitioners and the points they had put forward as she had a personal experience of a near miss.

·         The no right turn onto Ducks Hill Road was put in as recommended by the Ward Councillors due to the number of accidents at this junction.

·         Initially the no right turn had been monitored, but now it was not monitored the problem had slowly worsened and the no right turn was being ignored.

·         Felt that a camera would be a solution to the increased number of incidents occurring.

·         There was a blind bend on Northgate and speeding traffic caused a dangerous situation for other road users.

The Cabinet Member advised the petitioners that it was not the policy of the Council to carry out CCTV enforcement.  This policy had been re-considered in 2013 and there were no plans for this to be re-introduced CCTV enforcement at this stage.

The Cabinet Member referred to the recommendation on a speed and traffic volume survey and set out the detail of what this would entail.   This would provide the Council with information that could justify a way forward.  The information would be with the Ward Councillors.

The petitioners were informed by the Cabinet Member that Recommendation 4 would require officers to ask the Police to carry out ad hoc enforcement when their resources permit as ignoring the no right turn was a traffic violation.

The Cabinet Member agreed to ask officers to inspect the current signage and report back with a view to this being increased to highlight the no right turn.

In answer to a question raised officers advised the petitioners that the speed and traffic volume survey would be carried out in term time.

Resolved

That the Cabinet Member:

1.     Noted the information in the report, and the views of the petitioners at the meeting and considered the suggested actions.

3.    Noted the original reason for the banned right turn being introduced.

4.    Asked officers to add the petitioners request to the Council's Road           Safety Programme for further investigation.

5.    Asked officers to liaise with the Metropolitan Police Service to  request ad-hoc enforcement of the banned right turn as their resources permitted.

6.    Instructed officers to inspect the current signage on Ducks Hill Road with the entrance to Northgate and report the information back to the Cabinet Member for consideration as to whether further signage was required.