Traffic Calming Measures on St Martin's Road Talke Pit
I refer to the petition, signed by 64 local residents regarding installing traffic calming measures on St. Martin’s Road, Talke Pit. I can advise you that receipt of the petition will be reported to Cllr Helen Fisher, Cabinet Member for Highways & Transport.
If someone is injured in a road traffic accident on a public road and it has been reported to or recorded by the police, then the Council receives the collision data. The Council constantly monitors personal injury collisions reported on the public highway across Staffordshire to identify accident trends. Any treatable pattern of accidents identified will have proportionate remedial measures put forward for funding and be prioritised against other locations around Staffordshire. The key is based on a pattern rather than the severity of collision, although if there is a pattern of severe collisions then this takes greater priority.
The above forms the basis for how all highway authorities in England manage risk on their road networks. Staffordshire County Council has to prioritise limited public funding towards locations where there is an established pattern of treatable injury collisions to fulfil its statutory duties.
Thankfully, St Martins Road does not meet the criteria in terms of speed related collisions for speed reducing engineering measures or traffic calming features to be considered at this time, the route is considered to have a good road safety record, with no recorded road traffic collisions involving personal injury over the last five years of complete data that we hold.
We understand from an enquiry in January 2019 that there was a recent collision potentially involving private property, however, we hold no data for this incident which would either be damage-only or an injury incident that we have not yet received the details of from the police. We will continue to monitor data for this location.
The Council is aware of occasional concerns being raised by residents since at least 2014 and in response to those concerns a speed survey was carried out in 2015 to capture traffic speeds and the matter was recorded on the then local County Councillor’s Divisional Highway Programme (DHP). The recorded data did not provide any evidence to support the local concerns about speeding however, and the matter was not prioritised for further investigation at the time.
As the local County Councillor, the matter of local concerns about traffic speeds on St Martin’s Road is already recorded on your Divisional Highway Programme (DHP) following the 2014 enquiry.
The DHP provides you with a small annual fund from the Integrated Transport budget to prioritise and deliver solutions to locally important issues. Delivery may include the construction/implementation of small engineering works or feasibility studies into potential solutions to the concerns raised.
In view of the age of the speed data we hold, you may wish to consider this issue as a Local Community Priority and perhaps fund a new traffic speed survey in this area.
In the meantime, the Staffordshire Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP) actively works with communities who believe they have a speeding problem in their locality and this location could benefit from community-led initiatives such as Community Speed Watch.
The SSRP website www.staffssaferroads.co.uk offers advice and guidance on enforcement and educative schemes, which give communities the resources and confidence to address their concerns directly.
Should you require further information regarding your petition please contact Dave Greatbatch on 0300 111 8000.