South Park Road estate 20mph zone approved by councillors
December 20, 2011 Iain Roberts 8 Comments

Following a thorough consultation with residents, councillors have voted to make the South Park Road estate a 20mph zone, without speed humps.

The consultation initially came back with several options having roughly equal support, and the top option overall being for a 20mph zone with speed humps on the Kingsway Service Road.  However, a closer look at the figures told us that residents on Kingsway didn’t want speed humps on their own road.

We did more consultation work this week that backed that up.

Therefore, I proposed at the meeting for a 20mph zone with no speed humps.

Several residents have made alternative suggestions which we’ll look at closely in the new year.

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8 Comments

1
South Park Road estate: 20mph limit and Kingsway speed humps proposed
Wednesday 21 December 2011 - 6:45 am

[...] Update: this decision has now been taken – click here for details. [...]

2
Doreen Jones
Wednesday 21 December 2011 - 5:23 pm

When you say “We did more consultation work this week ….” I think that you mean a couple of the affected residents did, but at least you took notice of our comments and applied some common sense to the situation.

3
iainroberts
Wednesday 21 December 2011 - 6:00 pm

Hi Doreen,

We did take notice of your comments, and note that we actively asked for comments on this blog and as a result were contacted by several residents.

Of course, that’s in addition to the original consultation, which told us that the majority of residents on the Kingsway Service Road did not want the speedhumps, which is exactly why we were concerned that the proposal which came top on the consultation was not the right one to proceed with.

The additional comments from residents confirmed that view and we acted accordingly.

I think this shows the value of having a flexible consultation process – the information we had from residents across the South Park Road estate informed our decision, but rather than automatically go with the most popular option, we were able to look deeper into the data. A basic principle we wanted to follow was that no road should have speed humps if the majority of people on that road don’t want it. That’s what the data told us was the case, and the contacts we had with residents confirmed that.

4
Bob
Thursday 22 December 2011 - 12:49 pm

The only thing is, motorist ignore speed limits, so how will this be policed effectively, and there is also the problem of the rat run from the motorway, I have had to dodge these vehicles myself several times, when entering my vehicle when parked up on the service road.

5
Andy
Tuesday 27 December 2011 - 4:16 pm

Is this 20mph zone enforceable, there are some ‘zones’ that are advisory dependent on what signs are erected.

If it’s advisory, then don’t waste the money, if it’s a mandatory enforceable zone then ensure the police will act on complaints when no driver takes the slightest bit of notice.

6
Iain Roberts
Tuesday 27 December 2011 - 5:39 pm

Hi Andy,

20mph zones are not currently enforcable, but they do make a difference and slow traffic down. The strong evidence we have from elsewhere in Stockport and around the country is that having a 20mph zone without enforcement still slows down traffic by, on average, about 4mph.

That can easily make the difference between an accident and a near miss, or between someone being seriously hurt and getting off lightly.

7
Andy
Wednesday 28 December 2011 - 1:06 am

Iain,

The information I’ve been given is that they are enforceable;

“20 mph repeaters are not required within a signed 20 mph zone if the limit is in effect self-enforcing through the use of traffic calming measures. However, if there is little or no traffic calming, 20 mph repeaters are required for the limit to be enforceable. ”

I’ve seen a number of forums where ‘road law’ experts have said they are enforceable but the police do not have the resources or directive to do so.

If there’s no enforcement I oppose these zones, they are detrimental to the environment, motorists race between the humps,and are an ugly feature in any area, with further excessive street furniture and signs that need to be maintained and installed.

8
Iain Roberts
Wednesday 28 December 2011 - 8:08 am

Hi Andy,

There are ways to make 20mph zones enforceable, obviously with the agreement of the police.

However, I think we may have to agree to disagree on this. I’m a supporter of 20mph zones where local residents want them (and, in this case, residents were fully consulted and a clear majority favoured a 20mph zone).

They work in reducing traffic speed even without enforcement and so can make our residential areas safer and more pleasant places to live.



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