Contact: Richard Cowling, ext 5202 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report provides a progress update on transport schemes within the 2005/06 Capital Programme together with schemes for the 2006/07 Capital Programme that were approved by the Executive Member for Environment: South Hampshire and Resource Management on 18 January 2006. A summary of schemes is shown in the attached appendix.

1.2 The table below shows the county-wide improvement programmes for 2006/07 and, where applicable to the East Hampshire area, the report items are given for reference.

1.3 Schemes in the Capital Programme are financed from the Local Transport Plan (LTP) and/or external funding (EF) received from developers or other contributors.

2. Capital Schemes 2004/05

Central Hampshire Transportation Strategy Villages Initiative Schemes £60,000 LTP

2.1 The detailed design for the Clanfield project is completed and includes a pedestrian refuge and short footway link to improve the accessibility of local facilities and services, such as a community recreation ground, bus service and local schools. The project is expected to be completed in March 2006.

3. Capital Schemes 2005/06

A31 Junction Lymington Bottom, Four Marks £100,000 LTP £10,000 EF

3.1 This scheme will modify the junction of the A31 Winchester Road with Lymington Bottom in Four Marks. The current junction layout is of an `open' nature which, coupled with the fact that it lies in a dip, is resulting in vehicle speeds higher than the 40 miles per hour (mph) speed limit and is unattractive to pedestrians crossing Winchester Road. The junction features bus stops on either side of the A31, which serve students from Eggars School in Alton and Perins School in New Alresford. The junction is specifically identified in the School Travel Plan for Four Marks Primary School as a safety concern and a reason why fewer children are being walked to school than is desirable.

3.2 The scheme aims to formalise the junction layout, improve conditions for pedestrians and reduce traffic speeds. The main features of the scheme are to create new pedestrian islands at the entrances to the junction of the A31 and to widen and reshape the existing central reservation to formalise the right turn facility. This will remove the existing overtaking opportunity and provide safer pedestrian crossing features. The bus stop on the north side of the A31 will be replaced with a new cantilever shelter that has clear polycarbonate panels. The vegetation running along the rear edge of the footway will be cut back to create more usable footway width and remove the tunnel effect of the old bus stop. The bus shelter on the south side of Winchester Road is also being replaced.

3.3 Construction started on 23 January this year and is expected to be completed by the end of March 2006.

Alton Accessibility £300,000 LTP £34,000 EF

3.4 This scheme aims to address pedestrian accessibility and vehicle direction signing issues in Alton. The scheme is split into several physical areas throughout Alton and mainly comprises new footway links, pedestrian refuges, road markings and lighting improvements around the Whitedown Lane, Queens Road, Normandy Street/Orchard Lane and Lower Turk Street areas. The vehicle direction signing element of the scheme aims to improve general signing, but is specifically targeting issues associated with vehicles entering and leaving the town and simplifying car park signing.

3.5 Detailed design for all elements of the scheme is now complete. Project appraisal approval for the works around Whitedown Lane was achieved in November with works likely to commence in February 2006. The Project Appraisal for the remaining elements of the project was approved in January, with associated works expected to commence in March 2006.

Cycle Links, Fletchers Field, Liphook £55,000 EF

3.6 This scheme will complete a cycle route running from the residential area on the east side of Liphook Square to Bohunt School on the west side of the town. It will allow children to cycle to school using quiet residential streets and hence avoid the busier town square. The portion of the cycle route included in this scheme runs from Fletchers Field Road, across the public open space known as Fletchers Field to Portsmouth Road and then along Portsmouth Road before crossing into The Firs. The scheme will provide a dedicated off-road cycle route, away from an existing footpath across the field, so as to separate cyclists from pedestrians travelling to and from the sheltered accommodation situated next to Fletchers Field. The cycle route will be lit by new lighting columns with focused lighting heads so as to avoid light pollution affecting nearby residential properties. On Portsmouth Road it will become a shared-use facility, by widening the footway into the carriageway - thus reducing the effective carriageway width and providing a traffic calming effect at the junction of Portsmouth Road and The Firs.

3.7 A Project Appraisal was approved in December 2005. Works are programmed to commence 13 March 2006 with an expected duration of two to three weeks.

Petersfield Bus Shelters £15,000 EF

3.8 This scheme comprises the installation of two replacement bus shelters in Petersfield town centre. The two previous `Adshel' shelters - one outside Lloyd's Bank and the other outside Oxfam - were no longer deemed to be commercially viable from an advertising point of view and hence would have been left unmaintained once the current contract with Adshel expired. The replacement shelters, the design of which is sympathetic to their location within the conservation area, do not include advertising space and were installed on 20 February 2006. The shelters will be maintained by the Town Council.

4. Capital Schemes 2006/07

Petersfield Railway Station to Town Centre Cycles £70,000 EF

4.1 This scheme forms part of the overall strategy to deliver a cycle route from Petersfield Railway Station to the Taro Centre at Penns Place.

4.2 This section of the route is an on-road cycle scheme starting in the car park at Petersfield railway station, where there are good cycle storage facilities, continuing along Lavant Street, across Charles Street to the junction of Chapel Street. The route is then signed to allow a choice to cycle towards the town centre or enter the car park for the route continuing towards the Taro Centre. The road into the car park is currently a one-way street and therefore the scheme will include a contra-flow cycle lane along this short length road, which will require a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO). The nature of Lavant Street and Chapel Street precludes the use of off-road cycle facilities, but as the volume of vehicles along this route is not significant and the route is mainly within the 20 mph town centre speed limit zone, on-road facilities will be suitable for the majority of cyclists. This scheme will link directly to the cycle route scheme completed in 2004, that runs along Tor Way and finishes at the junction with Pulens Lane. The Tor Way to Pulens Lane scheme, which is also discussed in this report, will provide the final link to provide the complete cycle route from the railway station to the Taro Centre.

4.3 The scheme is at the detailed design stage with the advertising of the required TRO starting in January. The TRO process is expected to last four months, but could take longer if there are substantial objections. Therefore it is expected that the scheme will be implemented in September 2006.

Pulens Lane to Tor Way Cycle Route £130,000 EF

4.4 One of the areas of need identified in the Petersfield Area Transportation Strategy was for a spinal cycle route to allow easy and safe cycling from the railway station on the west side of the town through to the Taro centre next to the District Council offices on the east side of town. This scheme provides the final link in the chain for this aspiration by providing off-road cycle facilities from Tor Way to Pulens Lane. At Tor Way the scheme will link directly with the town centre to Tor Way cycle route, completed in 2004, and use the existing developer built off-road shared use cycle path that runs parallel to, and south of, Moggs Mead until approximately half way between Tor Way and Pulens Lane. This scheme will continue the cycle route from the termination of the existing one and use the Riverside walk path to the junction of Pulens Lane. The scheme will then use the School Crossing Patrol crossing point, built early 2005, as a means of getting to the east side of Pulens Lane. A new cycle bridge will be built across the east side of Tilmore Brook and the

footway widened and converted to cycle path from the bridge down to the junction of Pulens Lane with Barnfield Road, where the existing cycle route to the Taro Centre begins.

4.5 Detailed design is due to be completed by the end of March so that works can be programmed for the summer.

Alton Accessibility Stage 2 £250,000 LTP

4.6 The stage one Alton Accessibility project in 2005/06 included both infrastructure and signing works intended to make access to and from the town centre easier for all groups. The stage two project for 2006/07 continues on the same theme by improving the infrastructure for pedestrians and the signing for pedestrians and cyclists. The actual content of the project will only be confirmed once initial feasibility work has been completed but is likely to include improvements to the junction to the railway station car park on Papermill Lane, footway widening in the Vicarage Hill/Church Street area and a new pedestrian signing strategy.

4.7 An audit of the existing pedestrian signing commenced in January, along with feasibility work for the railway station junction with Paper mill Lane and the junction of Church Street with Vicarage Hill.

4.8 Once the feasibility work has been completed further consultation will be undertaken with the Town and District Councils before proceeding with detailed design and implementation in the autumn of 2006.

5. Impact Assessments

5.1 This report provides a position statement only on the progress of schemes in the Capital Programme, therefore an impact assessment in terms of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act has not been undertaken. Such assessments are carried out for each scheme to ensure the County Council's policies on equalities are not compromised.

Recommendation

That Members note the progress with the schemes in the Transport Capital Programme and support those approved for inclusion in the Capital Programme for 2006/07.

793/RC

APPENDIX

2005/06 CAPITAL PROGRAMME

2006/07 CAPITAL PROGRAMME