Contact: Tim Cheesebrough, ext 7114 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report outlines progress on the Casualty Reduction, Hampshire Safety Camera Partnership and Safer Routes to School programmes.

2. Casualty Reduction Programme

2.1 The 2003/04 low cost/high yield casualty reduction engineering programme consisted of 62 schemes throughout the county with a combined value totalling approximately £1.1 million. Appendix 1 shows the list of schemes featuring in that programme for the Winchester City Council area, with the current implementation/study position for each scheme. The provisional Low Cost Casualty Reduction Programme for the coming 2004/05 financial year is detailed in Appendix 2.

2.2 For the last quarter of the 2003/04 financial year and following the award of major scheme funding for the A3 bus priority corridor in Havant Borough, the County Council supplemented the initial casualty reduction engineering programme with an additional £750,000. The total low cost programme starts value for 2003/04 is approximately £1.75 million out of a total enhanced programme value of some £2.75 million. The remainder of the programme includes significant safety schemes at the B2177/B3354 junction, Fishers Pond; A30 Southwood Corner (Basingstoke Borough); and Lymington High Street (New Forest District).

2.3 The additional funding for the lower cost/high yield casualty reduction programme has enabled the County Council to implement early additional schemes at locations with a record of high severity casualties. Some of these sites have been identified through the County Council's Casualty Reduction Partnership investigations with Hampshire Constabulary at locations that have recently experienced high severity collisions. The treatments proposed are broadly similar to the well established low cost engineering programme and include measures such as improved signing, carriageway markings, retexturing and resurfacing. In addition, the enhanced funding enables early carriageway repair works to be undertaken ahead of an increased surface dressing programme in the 2004/05 financial year for roads with a proportionally high occurrence of loss of control incidents.

B3354 Junction with B2177 (Fishers Pond) Safety Improvements

2.4 As the Panel will be aware, a significant casualty reduction scheme has recently been completed at this junction to reduce the previous high incidence of right-turn injury accidents.

2.5 From a number of improvement options studied, a traffic signal layout was shown to offer the optimum solution in accommodating existing and predicted traffic flows. At the same time, the scheme offered the best arrangement for accommodating local pedal-cycle movements.

2.6 The works, undertaken by Raynesway Construction Southern, started at the end of October 2003 and were completed during January 2004. The total cost of the works (including utility diversions) was in the order of £290,000.

2.7 The scheme will be closely monitored by the Safety Engineering Team to assess its effectiveness.

3. Hampshire Safety Camera Partnership

3.1 Installation of fixed safety (speed) cameras is progressing and these are now operational (February 2004) at the following sites:

(i) B3037 Bishopstoke Road, Eastleigh;

(ii) C374 Highlands Road, Fareham;

(iii) A337 Setley, New Forest;

(iv) A35 Totton;

(v) A32 Gosport Road, Fareham; and

(vi) A36(T) West Wellow (on behalf of the Highways Agency).

3.2 New sites approved as part of the 2003/04 Safety Camera Partnership operational case submission to Government included:

(i) A3090 Crampmoor (Test Valley Borough);

(ii) Marine Parade, Lee-on-the-Solent (Gosport Borough); and

(iii) A339 (detrunked route) north-east of Wootton St Lawrence (Basingstoke Borough).

3.3 Cameras are currently being installed and commissioned at these sites and are expected to be operational by the end of the 2003/04 programme year. A formerly proposed fixed camera site on A325 at Holt Pound (East Hampshire) is being replaced with a speed reactive signing scheme. This is due to technical difficulties in finding an acceptable location for the camera's placement that would fully accord with the Government's camera conspicuity criteria.

3.4 New camera locations are only approved at sites or on routes where there has been a history of serious or fatal injury accidents and where speed checks have shown a significant percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit. Fixed cameras are considered where the evidence shows speed related accidents on a short stretch of road and mobile cameras where accidents are distributed along a route.

3.5 The 2002/03 Annual Review report of the Hampshire Safety Camera Partnership will be made available to Members at the meeting.

3.6 For the 2004/05 Operational Case year, approval has been sought from the Department for Transport for the placement of a further fixed safety (speed) camera at Southampton Road, Hythe (New Forest District). Subject to final detailed analysis it is expected this would be installed during the autumn of 2004.

4. Safer Routes to School Programme

4.1 Appendix 3 outlines the current study or implementation position of Safer Routes to School (SRTS) schemes within the Winchester City Council area. A number of schemes in the county-wide programme were carried forward from the 2002/03 programme following adjustments required to the capital programme to keep within 2002/03 spending limits.

4.2 As reported to Members at the autumn round of the former Highway Management Advisory Panel meetings, it is the County Council's intention to require all Safer Routes to School schemes from the 2004/05 financial year to be associated with the development and publication of School Travel Plans by the directly affected schools. This approach will ensure that schools as well as their pupils, parents and carers will fully benefit from the infrastructure measures installed. These benefits include offering improved levels of child travel safety together with opportunities for increased levels of cycling, walking and passenger transport usage. For the Panel's information, the current position regarding the development of School Transport Plans by schools in the Winchester area is shown in Appendix 4.

4.3 The provisional listing of schemes comprising the 2004/05 Safer Routes to School infrastructure support programme has not yet been set. This will be reported to the Highway and Transport Advisory Panels at their autumn round of meetings. Nevertheless, in anticipation of an increasing pace of publication of Travel Plans by Hampshire schools during the coming year, the county-wide Safer Routes to School infrastructure support programme is being increased from £0.5 million in 2003/04 to £1.25 million in 2004/05 and to £1.5 million in 2005/06.

Recommendation

That this report be noted.

8663/TLC