Area Board Meeting
On the 10th of November 2016, a number of residents from Castle Mead and Paxcroft Mead estates attended the Area Board Meeting at County Hall.
The following requests were made at the meeting:
We asked for:
speed cameras and the implementation of traffic-calming along Leap Gate, now a very busy road running through the heart of two family estates, Castle Mead and Paxcroft Mead.
the 50mph speed limit to be lowered to 40mph and for the enforcement of that speed limit as HGVs and other vehicles are exceeding the speed limit along that stretch of Leap Gate.
the 50/30mph interface to be re-sited to the start of the development as houses become visible to motorists where the balancing pond is situated and the crash barrier ends, as per DfT guidelines. This would allow motorists more time to slow down to 30mph before reaching the pedestrian crossing and the roundabout.
the enforcement of the 30mph speed limit, especialy the section leading to the pedestrian crossing and roundabout. It is obvious that the drop from 50mph to 30mph is too great for drivers to brake in time before reaching the pedestrian crossing and roundabout opposite Castle Mead School. The number of incidences of vehicles and HGVs running the red lights at the pedestrian crossing continues to grow. Motorists are still ignoring the 30mph speed limit and continue to drive at 50mph through the pedestrian crossing and across the roundabout, without slowing down at all.
HGVs using Leap Gate to have weight and time restrictions. Leap Gate is a totally inappropriate road for HGVs to use as a direct route through Trowbridge. The A350 and A361 are more suitable for access to the Gap bypass. HGVs are speeding through the estate and totally ignoring speed limits, thereby putting at risk parents and their children using the road, especially when crossing the road to get to one of the two primary schools serving both Castle Mead and Paxcroft Mead estates.
Councillors were made aware that:
some parents/residents no longer allow their children to play on the public open spaces along Leap Gate as they fear for their safety due to the speed and volume of traffic and the number of HGVs thundering through the estate. Wiltshire Council, by setting inconsistent speed limits, 40mph/30mph/50mph, along one stretch of road, has increased the overall speed of vehicles travelling along Leap Gate, thereby also discouraging residents from walking or cycling as it is too dangerous to do so.
residents living along Leap Gate are constantly having their sleep disturbed by HGVs and other speeding vehicles throughout the night since the remaining stretch of Leap Gate was opened in June 2016. We asked for grants to be made available to those living along the main stretch to have quality double- glazing installed.
Highways, at Wiltshire Council, continues to treat residents' concerns with contempt and totally ignore our requests for them to reconsider their poor decisions. It would seem that it will take a serious injury or death before Highways will take action, but by that time, it will be too late, and a life or lives will have been lost, and the lives of those left behind forever changed.
During the course of the meeting, we heard that Dr. Andrew Murrison MP continues to support his constituents who live on the Castle Mead estate, and that he has had meetings with Wiltshire Council and the Area Board.
Other points that we were asked to raise but were not given enough time to present:
(1) The walking route between Paxcroft Mead and the shops/pub/community centre in Hackett Place is totally unsuitable in the dark from a safety point of view. Leap Gate itself is a shorter, direct, route and is well-lit. However, there is no footpath or pavement and pedestrians are forced to walk along a 40mph stretch of road on a grass verge with HGVs speeding close by. This is an accident waiting to happen and is bad planning. We urgently request for a footpath and a lower speed limit along this stretch of road.
(2) There is an outline planning application being processed for the West Ashton / Yarnbrook relief road. The development and A350 scheme rest on modelling that puts the traffic through Leap Gate at peak periods in volumes similar to those currently experienced on the A350. It is unclear when the road will be constructed and when the Ashton Park housing will be built. The question is, how will Leap Gate cope with the predicted volume of traffic going through the new estates along Leap Gate, and how will this impact communities, in terms of the disruption of daily life, pollution, noise and danger?
We understand that for more than 40 years, the plan had been to have the road built to run around the edge of the housing estates, but obviously it was cheaper to have Persimmon build the new stretch of road straight through the estate to join the existing road at Green Lane.
It would appear that Wiltshire Council has deliberately not made this information public knowledge, which is why it does not show up on prospective house-buyers' land searches, meaning that we have all been sold homes without having all the facts made available to us.
As part of Wiltshire Council's Development Brief, the noise impact on residents is to be mitigated by traffic-calming and sound-buffering. None of these things have been put in place. We call for Wiltshire Council to implement this urgently.
Land at East Trowbridge Development Brief
Noise 2.13 Potential noise sources adjoining the site are identified as being road traffic noise from the proposed distributor link road. The effects of this on both the new development and the existing neighbouring residential properties to the site should be mitigated, with particular care taken on the narrow corridor that forms the extension of Leap Gate as far as Green Lane.
The following requests were made at the meeting:
We asked for:
speed cameras and the implementation of traffic-calming along Leap Gate, now a very busy road running through the heart of two family estates, Castle Mead and Paxcroft Mead.
the 50mph speed limit to be lowered to 40mph and for the enforcement of that speed limit as HGVs and other vehicles are exceeding the speed limit along that stretch of Leap Gate.
the 50/30mph interface to be re-sited to the start of the development as houses become visible to motorists where the balancing pond is situated and the crash barrier ends, as per DfT guidelines. This would allow motorists more time to slow down to 30mph before reaching the pedestrian crossing and the roundabout.
HGVs using Leap Gate to have weight and time restrictions. Leap Gate is a totally inappropriate road for HGVs to use as a direct route through Trowbridge. The A350 and A361 are more suitable for access to the Gap bypass. HGVs are speeding through the estate and totally ignoring speed limits, thereby putting at risk parents and their children using the road, especially when crossing the road to get to one of the two primary schools serving both Castle Mead and Paxcroft Mead estates.
Councillors were made aware that:
some parents/residents no longer allow their children to play on the public open spaces along Leap Gate as they fear for their safety due to the speed and volume of traffic and the number of HGVs thundering through the estate. Wiltshire Council, by setting inconsistent speed limits, 40mph/30mph/50mph, along one stretch of road, has increased the overall speed of vehicles travelling along Leap Gate, thereby also discouraging residents from walking or cycling as it is too dangerous to do so.
residents living along Leap Gate are constantly having their sleep disturbed by HGVs and other speeding vehicles throughout the night since the remaining stretch of Leap Gate was opened in June 2016. We asked for grants to be made available to those living along the main stretch to have quality double- glazing installed.
Highways, at Wiltshire Council, continues to treat residents' concerns with contempt and totally ignore our requests for them to reconsider their poor decisions. It would seem that it will take a serious injury or death before Highways will take action, but by that time, it will be too late, and a life or lives will have been lost, and the lives of those left behind forever changed.
During the course of the meeting, we heard that Dr. Andrew Murrison MP continues to support his constituents who live on the Castle Mead estate, and that he has had meetings with Wiltshire Council and the Area Board.
Other points that we were asked to raise but were not given enough time to present:
(1) The walking route between Paxcroft Mead and the shops/pub/community centre in Hackett Place is totally unsuitable in the dark from a safety point of view. Leap Gate itself is a shorter, direct, route and is well-lit. However, there is no footpath or pavement and pedestrians are forced to walk along a 40mph stretch of road on a grass verge with HGVs speeding close by. This is an accident waiting to happen and is bad planning. We urgently request for a footpath and a lower speed limit along this stretch of road.
(2) There is an outline planning application being processed for the West Ashton / Yarnbrook relief road. The development and A350 scheme rest on modelling that puts the traffic through Leap Gate at peak periods in volumes similar to those currently experienced on the A350. It is unclear when the road will be constructed and when the Ashton Park housing will be built. The question is, how will Leap Gate cope with the predicted volume of traffic going through the new estates along Leap Gate, and how will this impact communities, in terms of the disruption of daily life, pollution, noise and danger?
We understand that for more than 40 years, the plan had been to have the road built to run around the edge of the housing estates, but obviously it was cheaper to have Persimmon build the new stretch of road straight through the estate to join the existing road at Green Lane.
It would appear that Wiltshire Council has deliberately not made this information public knowledge, which is why it does not show up on prospective house-buyers' land searches, meaning that we have all been sold homes without having all the facts made available to us.
As part of Wiltshire Council's Development Brief, the noise impact on residents is to be mitigated by traffic-calming and sound-buffering. None of these things have been put in place. We call for Wiltshire Council to implement this urgently.
Land at East Trowbridge Development Brief
Noise 2.13 Potential noise sources adjoining the site are identified as being road traffic noise from the proposed distributor link road. The effects of this on both the new development and the existing neighbouring residential properties to the site should be mitigated, with particular care taken on the narrow corridor that forms the extension of Leap Gate as far as Green Lane.
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