Petition - Requesting Hampshire County Council to include School Road and parts of Boundary Road, situated in Hampshire, in the Rowledge 20 MPH Scheme being implemented by Surrey County Council

Thank you for your petition to include School Road and parts of Boundary Road in the Rowledge 20 mph scheme which is being proposed by Surrey County Council.

Early in June this year a report was published on the outcomes achieved from a comprehensive review of 14 pilot 20 mph “signed only” speed limits in Hampshire, which comprised of a mix of urban residential and rural village centre areas in the County.  The comparison of traffic speed data “before” and “after” the 20 mph speed limits were implemented showed an average reduction of just 0.4 mph demonstrating that reduced speed limits of this type have had very little, if any impact on driver behaviour. The detailed evaluation work has, however, provided a strong, evidence-based assessment of the likely  outcomes of implementing 20 mph restrictions in comparable areas elsewhere in Hampshire and traffic and safety engineers consider similar poor reductions in traffic speed would be achieved in Rowledge if such a speed limit were to be introduced here.  We have shared this information as part of our discussions with Rowledge Road Safety Group in respect of road safety on the roads in the village that lie within Hampshire and also the scheme developed by Surrey County Council.

Hampshire County Council will continue to consider introducing 20 mph speed limits in locations where there is clear evidence of safety being compromised by excessive speed and where reduced limits would be most likely to address the issues. This would include areas where injury accidents involving vulnerable road users attributed to speed are identified, with such proposals assessed in accordance with current policy and Department for Transport guidance on setting speed limits. This approach ensures that the County Council makes the best use of limited resources.

The latest review of the injury accident record covering the five year period to the end of May 2018 for the roads in Rowledge which are maintained by Hampshire County Council shows that there are no recorded incidents, a situation which is very difficult to improve upon in terms of casualty reduction. Traffic and safety engineers have not identified any specific hazards along the roads in question or areas where there are regular damage only or near miss incidents.

Where schemes are not prioritised by the County Council on safety grounds the local community, including residents groups, may wish to consider funding some of the more straightforward traffic management enhancements themselves. Where appropriate, the County Council will be able to facilitate the development and implementation of these on a full cost recovery basis. All proposals will be subject to assessment in order that any new measures are consistent with those implemented by Hampshire County Council across Hampshire.

Traffic management enhancements that the local community may wish to consider include:

• School advisory 20mph speed limit signs
• Village entry ‘Gate’ features
• Enhanced speed limit ‘Gateway’ signs
• Traffic signs and road markings
• Informal pedestrian crossing points
• Enhanced village nameplates
• Sign rationalisation and de-clutter
• Bollards/posts to prevent footway/verge overrun
• Temporary electronic Speed Limit Reminder (SLR) signs
• Traditional finger-post signs
• Safety slogan wheelie bin stickers

Again, officers have shared the details of this initiative with the Rowledge Road Safety Group and other residents in the local community. We do, of course, work closely with our colleagues in Surrey on this and other cross border matters but do wish to clarify that, in this particular case, Surrey County Council has not offered to pay for highway measures within Hampshire.

I appreciate that this is not the answer you were looking for but trust this information is helpful to you.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Rob Humby
Executive Member for Environment and Transport