Petition relating to traffic concerns and mitigation measures in Glebe Park Avenue, Bedhampton

Thank you for your petition.

Perceptions of ‘rat running’ are difficult to qualify without undertaking extensive origin and destination surveys, which we would generally only consider as part of a proposed major road improvements project.  Glebe Park Avenue is a through route serving the local area and there would likely be differing views from all road users, as well as residents of other nearby roads, should there be a proposal to close the through route or other measures that would displace traffic.

Regarding your road safety concerns, our limited Traffic & Safety resources are targeted at casualty reduction, with priority given to locations with treatable recuring patterns or clusters of reported injury collisions.  We have access to the Police database of all injury collisions recorded throughout Hampshire and this is used to formulate our annual safety scheme programmes.  We have a finite amount of resource which must be used where we are confident it will make a difference, and this approach sharpens the focus of our work to concentrate on casualty reduction measures and road safety education in locations where we have a proven history of people being hurt on the highway.

It is vital that we concentrate our limited resources towards these locations ahead of those where the collision record is relatively good in comparison.  Our targeted approach has resulted in significant reductions in the numbers of people injured in collisions on Hampshire roads over the years.  It would be very difficult to justify directing our resources away from sites where people are currently being injured to locations where there is a general perception of danger without a treatable injury collision record.  In this respect Glebe Park Avenue nor the adjoining roads currently justify inclusion on our scheme programmes.

For information, the existing width restriction on Glebe Park Avenue allows exemptions for vehicles in connection with legitimate activities such as building works and road maintenance etc.  These types of restrictions are very difficult for the Police to enforce and are therefore reliant on driver compliance, meaning that the levels of HGV traffic are often not reduced to the extent that residents would like or expect.

Please note the following further information regarding some of the specific measures you have requested –

20mph speed limit

You may be aware that earlier this year a revised policy position for 20mph speed limits was approved by the County Council that enables Parish and Town Councils, as well as other community groups, to request new 20mph speed limits and zones, where certain criteria are met, and where local communities are fully supportive of the measure. This revised approach will require schemes to be delivered on a full cost recovery basis meaning that Parish and Town Councils or community organisations will need to cover the full costs of any changes.  Schemes where there is a history of speed-related collisions, based upon the Police injury collision record data, will be progressed by the County Council.

A dedicated webpage has been launched where applications for 20mph limits can be formally made. The webpage also contains a self-assessment guide and a link to the policy report which explains the background to the approach taken.  Please use the following link - https://www.hants.gov.uk/transport/transportschemes/20mph-speed-limit  As explained in the self-assessment guide accessed via the link, representatives of groups in areas without Parish or Town Councils, such as Havant, are encouraged in the first instance to contact their relevant District or Borough Council, in particular to explore potential assistance with funding.

Vehicle activated signs

Our policy is that permanent Vehicle Activated Signs, including Speed Indicator Devices (SID’s – displaying the speed being travelled with smiley/sad faces or other symbols) or Speed Limit Reminder signs (SLR’s – displaying the speed limit with SLOW DOWN), are reserved for locations with a proven casualty record.  We deliberately reserve the use of permanent electronic safety signs to locations that have particularly stubborn injury collision problems where other casualty reduction measures have proved to be ineffective.  This policy helps to ensure that the relatively few permanent vehicle activated signs on the highway retain their prominence and effectiveness.  We also try to avoid use of signs that display vehicle speeds, as their use seems limited when compared to those replicating warning signs.

We do support the use of temporary electronic signs (usually SLR’s), but only for short term deployments of around 2-4 weeks at a time to help ensure that they provide the maximum impact to motorists.  Havant Borough Council operates a limited programme of SLR’s, although currently not in your area, and you may wish to contact them to request additional sites.

Traffic calming

Physical speed reducing measures such as road humps only exceptionally form part of a casualty reduction scheme, and only where excessive speed is identified by the Police as the principal factor in collisions and where other lower cost measures have not been successful in reducing incidents.  Other measures are often more appropriate, with casualty reduction schemes designed to target the specific causes of collisions based on the evidence recorded by the Police attending incidents.

Cul-de-sac

This type of measure would only be considered in exceptional circumstances and is not justified based on our safety-led criteria explained above.  This would cause significant implications for rerouted traffic and there would be additional practical issues in constructing a turning facility to ensure vehicles of all sizes could turn around at the closed end of the road.

Glebe Park Avenue was last inspected as part of an annual programme of inspections on 15 February 2024. No safety defects were recorded. The next scheduled routine inspection will be Spring 2025.

Additionally, we have only received reports of two defects on Glebe Park Avenue in the past year (both on 26 October 2024). Both relate to minor footway defects, and orders have been raised to address each of them. The target completion for both is 28 December.

We have arranged for an Engineer to undertake an ad-hoc inspection, and should they identify any defects which meet our current safety intervention criteria, these will be addressed appropriately. The enquiry number for this is 7166801 and the progress can be tracked via the following link: https://www.hants.gov.uk/transport/highways/statuschecker

If you wish to report any specific defects, please do so via this link: https://www.hants.gov.uk/transport/highways/report-a-problem. This is the most efficient method for highlighting issues to the Highway Authority and allows us to better allocate and track enquiries.

I hope this has provided a suitable response to your enquiry.

Yours sincerely

Cllr Lulu Bowerman
Executive Member for Highways and Waste