Date of meeting: 6 July 2023
A period of not more than fifteen minutes shall be allowed at each ordinary meeting of the Council for the hearing of deputations from members of the public.
Notification of one Deputation has been received. The spokesperson is entitled to speak for 5 minutes.
1) Deputation: Further traffic calming measures requested for Franklin Road
Significant traffic calming measures are requested for Franklin Road, particularly at the junction with De Montfort Road and the top-end junction with Wellington Street.
Background
This request is being made by Lower-North-East-Hanover Residents which is a group that provides a forum where residents in our local area can meet to discuss and improve our local neighbourhood. The area covered by our group is shown in the map in Annex 1.
An issue that is consistently raised in this forum is the problem caused by cars travelling fast along Franklin Road which is used as a rat-run by through traffic to avoid the traffic lights and congestion at the bottom of Elm Grove. The first problem point is the wide junction with De Montford Road where cars sweep round travelling to and from Elm Grove. This can make crossing the wide roads at this point difficult, particularly for the elderly. Also, this is a place used by children to cross the road on the way to-and-from William Clarke Park and Fairlight and St. Martins Schools (for example, see the submission we have had from a resident of De Montfort Road shown in Annex 2). A second problem point is the extra traffic at the junction with Wellington Street at the top of Franklin Road. Visibility on this corner is poor and the traffic creates problems for disabled visitors to the Wellington House Day Centre situated on this corner (for example see supporting letter from the manager of the Day Centre in Annex 2).
On 18th January 2022, the Lower-North-East-Hanover-Residents (LNEHR) group made a deputation to the ETS Committee to be included as part of the LTN being considered for the Hanover area. A major motivation for this deputation was to tackle the problems mentioned above, which might be exacerbated by extra traffic using Elm Grove following an LTN introduction. The simple solution then proposed (as part of the LTN trial) was a trial road closure on Franklin Road, just below the junction with Wellington Road. However, this proposal was strongly opposed by certain local residents who felt this would limit their flexibility and local travel options by car.
However, at meetings of the LNEHR group, there is universal support for some form significant traffic calming measures to address the problems mentioned above.
Request
Please could the Council consider suitable and cost-effective traffic-calming measures to inhibit and control the use of Franklin Road by through traffic.
The North-East Hanover Residents group will be happy to discuss any proposals with the Council and give any assistance we can with their introduction.
Supported by:
Nicholas Wells (Lead Spokesperson)
Vanessa Cox Pendray
Marian Brooker
K. Isaksen
S. Isaksen
Camilla Gauge
Mark Jubber
Iain White
Pamela Nickels
Deniz Birkan
Clinton Cousins
James Morris
Supporting Information
Annex 1: Map of Area
Letter 1: from a resident of De Montfort
R
oad
Letter 2: From the Manager of the Wellington House Day Centre
Email 3: From local resident
From: Anna ________________
Date: 5 May 2023 at 20:53:52
BST
To: lneh.residents@gmail.com
Subject: Franklin road
Hi,
I hope I am not too late.
i am very happy for Franklin road to be closed to cars and us having a pedestrian area.
It affects De Montfort road a lot, cars cut the 'corner' drive sometimes dangerously fast.
My daughter-in-law was almost hit by one last week.
Thank you
Anna __________
__ De Montfort road
Brighton
__________