Agenda item

Councillors Janet Duncan, Dominic Gilham and Jan Sweeting attended the meeting and each spoke as Ward Councillors.

The petitioner could not attend the meeting but sent his concerns via e-mail.

The lead petitioner was heard by the Chairman previously in March 2015 about this issue, having been deferred from February at the lead petitioner's request. The lead petitioner did not attend the meeting in March, but local Ward Members were present.

The lead petitioner stated in his e-mail that 350 signatures had been submitted, as opposed to 199 and 7 letters of support what had also been submitted from local businesses, Swan Road Church, Swan Road Care Home, Councillors and the MP.

The lead petitioner continued that specific measures, other than pedestrian crossings were flexible about and believed that the road safety department could recommend appropriately and Councillors could arrange a consultation.

The lead petitioner reuested clarification on the statement that "the traffic report does not support a case for traffic calming on Swan Road". 

Ward Councillors made the following points in SUPPORT:

·         The issues affected the wider area of The Green, Church Road, Old Farm Road, Money Lane and Mill Road.

·         The area was a traffic hot spot with heavy vehicles that brought metal waste to the recycling facilities in donkey Lane and the Common.

·         There were more buses that used the route and there was increased traffic from residents in the new flats.

·         Swan Road was a bus route and there was heavy traffic that used this road giving rise to noise and vibration. The Council had installed vibration monitoring equipment.

·         The road was busy through the working day and the problems experienced varied according to the time of day. There was speeding in light traffic and standstill at some points of the working day.

·         Residents whose children attended St Catherine's School, Money Lane walked down Swan Road and some had observed incidents of near misses and damage to parked cars and accidents.

·         Ward Councillors were happy to work with local schools on travel plans.

·         There was inconsiderate and unsafe parking on the road by commuters, holiday makers and local workers. There was no controlled parking zone but some residents would welcome one. However, this could perhaps encourage speeding. Cars were able to park on Swan Road and this reduced the width of the carriageway and caused damage to parked cars when traffic tried to move through narrow space.

·         There had been accidents in Swan Road; last year there were four that the Ward Councillors had been informed about. However, the Police had no record of accidents on the road even though an accident last year had resulted in the road being closed.

·         Reference was made to a petition which had been submitted last year for a 20mph zone but it had been unsuccessful as Council investigations found there was an average speed of less than 30mph. However, as part of the time the traffic was slow, it was implied that at other times the traffic would be in excess of 30mph. In addition the Police data did not match accident levels experienced by those living and working in the area.

·         The current petition had been submitted to introduce traffic calming measures to ensure safer movement of traffic and to reduce accidents and damage to vehicles and pedestrian crossings. A request was made by Ward Councillors for CCTV to monitor road conditions over a few months.

·         The Cabinet Member, Councillor Keith Burrows, listened to the concerns raised and noted that the police could not provide supporting evidence if they had not been called to the scene of an accident. He also noted that there was a school crossing and a patrol officer which would make the zebra crossing safer.

·         Regarding the average speed cameras the Cabinet Member reported that it worked on car count and therefore could not mask data.

·         The Cabinet Member asked that the Ward Councillors work with the petitioner and engage with residents in the other roads.

RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Member:

1. Met and discussed with petitioners their request for traffic calming and enhanced pedestrian crossing facilities in Swan Road, West Drayton;

2. Noted that he heard a previous petition, from the same lead petitioner, seeking a 20mph Zone, as recently as March 2015;

3. Noted that the Council had to date commissioned four separate sets of independent traffic surveys in Swan Road, undertaken in November 2008, July 2011,January 2014 and July 2014, the results of which are set out in this report and none of which in themselves have supported a case for traffic calming;

4. Sought clarity from the lead petitioner on his specific requests and the extent to which other petitioners were involved in the consideration of this level of detail;

5. Noted that there was no new information since the last petition. Ward Councillors were asked to engage with the petition lead and carefully decide their next steps

6. Asked officers to review the situation in Swan Road with London Buses and TfL as part of any ongoing investigation;

7. Invited Ward Members to encourage relevant local schools to work with the Council's School Travel and Road Safety Team to formulate their School Travel Plans and establish a case, if any, for further measures in Swan Road as part of this, and noted that the School Travel Plans were in their early stages;

8. In light of the ongoing claims that there were incidents of vehicles speeding, albeit despite the lack of independent traffic survey evidence to support this, considers asking officers to specifically raise Swan Road with the Metropolitan Police and other emergency services at the next available liaison meeting with them, seeking their own monitoring and enforcement at his specific request, and furthermore to seek a report back via officers for his consideration along with his Ward Member colleagues.