Contact: Amy Bristow, ext 7038

1. Summary

1.1 Test Valley School in Stockbridge is a secondary school with approximately 600 pupils on the roll, although this is set to expand. A large percentage of the pupils arrive by bus at the layby on Roman Road that leads to the school. The school and the Parish Council have lobbied the County Council to make further improvements in the vicinity of the school, but these are expensive and not all are technically feasible.

2. Background

2.1 There has been a long history of the school and residents raising concerns about congestion at the beginning and end of the school-day and about pupil safety. A meeting was held at the school in February 2001 and preliminary scheme designs to improve the layby were shown to the school and residents for discussion. These designs ranged from white lining and priority markings to a complete redesign of the layby, including substantial earth works. The latter was included to demonstrate the expense such work would involve.

2.2 As a result of the consultation a scheme was progressed, which included redesigning the bus layby area. The cost of £40,000 was funded from the 2000/01 Safer Routes to Schools budget (£25,000) and the 2001/02 Safer Routes to Schools budget (£15,000). The operation of the layby is being monitored and yellow lines will be provided. A provision of £5,000 has been made in the WHTS Safer Routes to School funding to support this work. However, since the delivery of the scheme, the school and the Parish Council have continued to lobby the County Council with suggestions for further, more extensive work to be undertaken.

3. Key Requests from the School and Parish Council

3.1 The key requests are detailed below:

(i) Supervisory Staff - the school has been requesting that the County Council provides a supervisor to watch pupils on and off the buses. This request is being considered.

(ii) Lower Access Road to the School - requests have been made by the school and Parish Council for an immediate widening of the lower access road to allow two-way traffic so that parents can access the school from here.

(iii) New Access Road to the School - the school and Parish Council are calling for the County Council to build a completely new access road so that pupils can be loaded onto buses in the school grounds.

(iv) Works on the A30 - other works on the A30 have been proposed by the Parish Council, including the installation of a mini-roundabout, restricting lane widths and providing gateway treatments. The speed of traffic on the A30 has been identified as part of the wider Western Hampshire Transport Strategy (WHTS) and is being considered as part of a package of environmental improvements for Stockbridge and its wider environ, which is identified in the WHTS capital programme. Therefore, any suitable measures will be progressed.

(v) Meeting - the school and Parish Council are calling for a meeting to discuss their proposals further.

4. Local Member's Views

4.1 Councillor Woodhall has been fully involved in the scheme and is aware of the issues.

5. Conclusion

5.1 Initial assessments suggest that these options will be expensive and may not be feasible or desirable in some cases for safety reasons. Despite being appraised of the situation and being advised to develop a school travel plan, the school and Parish Council continue to lobby for engineering works.

5.2 Therefore, an option would be for officers to instruct W S Atkins to conduct feasibility work and produce a formal report on the requests, as well as costings. A technical assessment of the options would then be available for consideration.

5.3 However, the feasibility and design works would need to be funded from the WHTS allocation. An initial estimate of the cost of the feasibility study is £5,000. It is not considered appropriate to embark on further work as the overall capital cost is likely to be well in excess of WHTS funding and the measures would therefore need to be assessed for inclusion in other programmes. The cost benefits are likely to be low and it would mean directing funding away from other Safer Routes to School projects, where school travel plans are being developed and works have subsequently been identified in partnership with the school. It has previously been agreed that priority will be given to schools where travel plans are being developed.

Recommendation

That the Panel supports that:

(i) further work be undertaken to introduce yellow lines, funding for which is available in the Safer Routes to School current financial year programme; and

(ii) no further feasibility work be carried out with regard to the requests from Test Valley School and the Parish Council.

6791/AB