Agenda item - Deputations from members of the public.

A list of deputations received by the due date of the 21 January 2010 will be circulated separately as part of an addendum at the meeting.

43.1       The Mayor reported that two Deputations had been received and invited Mr. Towers as the spokesperson for the first deputation to come forward and address the council.

43.2       Mr. Towers thanked the Mayor and stated that;

             “The issue we have set out is about unsafe crossings at Old Shoreham Road, Neville Road and Sackville Road.  There is a lot of strength of community feeling around this that it is an unsafe crossing and I think that is evidenced from the presentation that Councillor Bennett made on the petition earlier.  Out of 212 adult residents who were spoken to, 210 agreed to sign the petition.

          The problems are firstly, it’s a complex junction.  There are four filter lanes.  The light sequences are complex.  It’s impossible as a pedestrian on these crossings to understand what the light sequence is unless you’ve done it day in, day out, for quite a period of time.  Once you get to the central island you’re exposed, there are no safety barriers on the central crossings.  There is no space or insufficient space for parents with children, particularly with buggies or with young children, when crossing at peak times.  Cars speed and jump the lights and it’s complicated further still by the junction both north and south having a convergence of traffic from two lanes down to one, with traffic drivers looking to jockey for position to get into the right lane, perhaps more than focus on the pedestrians that are standing in front of them waiting to cross.

          These issues have been raised over many years it’s not a new problem.  We were given statistics way back from 2002 to 2004 that showed nine reported collisions resulting in injuries to people.  For the last three years up until November 2009 ten more injuries were reported.  That, of course, masks the larger number, we think, of unreported incidents and accidents and certainly the huge number of near misses that I and other people witness regularly.

          Residents that we spoke to fear crossing and fear for their children crossing.  This we believe undermines policies to promote reduction in car use, to promote increased exercise and use of green spaces, particularly as we are so close to Hove Park.  Many parents drive their children to school because they consider it unsafe to take them across these roads.  Some children, particularly older ones who otherwise should be capable and able and free to go to the park on their own have to rely on their parents being available in order to cross them safely.

          Our understanding is that £7.4m surplus was made from parking fines last year in the city and a number of initiatives such as school cycle parks, cycle lanes and subsidised bus routes were used as a consequence of that; yet we can’t cross the road safely and that to me raises questions about priorities and perspective.  Over four years of raising this issue no action has been taken at this junction.

          I quote from a letter from the then Council Leader, Councillor Simon Burgess, back in 2006 who said: ‘this junction will be included for consideration if any planning applications for development are received in the area that may present opportunities to secure funds for improvements.’

          Okay, so we’ve been waiting for this private funding to come in and save the day.  Since that letter we estimate thirteen or more further casualties have resulted at that junction.  That’s thirteen people who couldn’t wait for a private developer to come in with a solution.  We understand that there is a proposal for Sackville Place retail development.  We have no idea of the timeframe for that.  We have no idea of the schedule of works in terms of whether it’s possible to expedite and bring forward the work to secure that junction and make it safe for people to cross ahead of any other work that takes place and, furthermore, it raises concerns for a number of the local residents about an increase in traffic per se. 

          What we are asking for is not to wait but just to take some action now.  We want an immediate safety audit, a safety audit of that site at peak times, not off-peak times, at peak times when the majority of people are crossing.  We want a green man crossing, both north and south.  We would like to see safety barriers installed.  We would like traffic calming measures and we would like pedestrian prioritisation at those lights in terms of the scheduling.  We did consider whether or not the option of a school traffic warden, or as we used to call them ‘lollipop men’/‘lollipop ladies’, might be feasible but I think the argument is they’d probably be put at too much risk.”

43.3       Councillor Theobald replied, “I do welcome the way in which you have put the argument, if I may put it that way, this afternoon, very eloquently and thank you very much.

          Things have moved forward since Councillor Burgess’s time because our design proposals do include the provision of controlled pedestrian crossing points on all arms of the junctions.  We have the design, the proposals are there, they have been designed.  What I will do because it is connected and you are right and you mention that in your speech to the development at Sackville Place.  What I will do is I will ask the Planning Department to contact you and to give you an update as to exactly where that development is.  I do appreciate the position that you and the other residents in your area are in and obviously I am very much hoping that the proposals that have been designed can be implemented as soon as possible.”

43.4       The Mayor thanked Mr. Towers for attending the meeting and speaking on behalf of the deputation.  She explained that the points had been noted and the deputation would be referred to the Environment Cabinet Member Meeting for consideration.  The persons forming the deputation would be invited to attend the meeting and would be informed subsequently of any action to be taken or proposed in relation to the matter set out in the deputation. 

43.5       The Mayor then invited Ms. Slinn as the spokesperson for the second deputation to come forward and address the council.

43.6       Ms. Slinn thanked the Mayor and stated that;

“I am a resident of Hove, having lived in the two streets leading off the Old Shoreham Road which are at opposite ends of the stretch of Old Shoreham Road between BHASVIC and the Upper Drive for over 11 years.  I have a 13 year old boy who attends Cardinal Newman and I have concerns about the safety of the crossing at the Upper Drive/Old Shoreham Road and the lack of a crossing at The Drive and Old Shoreham Road.  It’s clear that those junctions are very busy and the Upper Drive junction is used predominantly by school children.

There are three schools around that junction with approximately 3,000 school children attending those schools.  At the junction with The Drive there appear to be no pedestrian traffic signals at all.  There appears to be no time delay between the change of lights to allow school children or other pedestrians to cross safely.  At the junction with the Upper Drive there is a crossing.  However, there have been many incidents recently of cars speeding through the crossing to avoid the lights changing and actually driving through red lights, crashing into railings, into bollards and narrowly avoiding pedestrians. 

I’ve got anecdotal evidence from neighbours and friends who have been nearly run over at the crossing.  My window cleaner was nearly run over by a speeding car last week and my neighbour across the road with her new baby was nearly run over a couple of weeks ago.  I myself was involved in a car collision in December and had that happened five minutes earlier it might have affected the school children using the crossing.

I consider the design of the Old Shoreham Road is partly to blame.  It gives a false impression to motorists.  The carriageways are very wide and they encourage speeding and overtaking. There are also bus stops immediately before the crossing on either side of the road and when buses stop, cars overtake them at the crossing.  In fact, the whole stretch of the Old Shoreham Road just before the Upper Drive and up to The Drive is wide and motorists appear to treat it like a dual carriageway with accompanying speeds.

There are no signs indicating that there are schools along this part of the Old Shoreham Road.  The only signs there are are halfway up the Upper Drive immediately opposite the entrances to the schools.  I find this quite shocking, bearing in mind there are the three schools located at this junction with approximately 3,000 children attending.  There is no speed camera, there is no traffic signal camera and no device which advises motorists to slow down and many of these are present on other roads in the city.  I consider it very alarming that school children have to cross a busy road that is effectively being used as a dual carriageway.

I have spoken to many parents in the area, including parents at Somerhill Junior School for which I am a parent governor, and they too raise their concerns about this stretch of the Old Shoreham Road and the safety of their children attending the secondary schools.

I have taken advice from a Highways Engineer who considers that there are some very simple measures that could be taken.  The first thing would be to erect school signs just before the junction of the Upper Drive, approaching south, east and west and that would alert motorists to the fact that there are people crossing and there are school children crossing and secondly to prevent overtaking, which again I do consider the design of the road may give motorists a false impression, simple measures could be made to the carriageway and thirdly a ‘slow down’ device could be erected.  Lastly, if this stretch of the Old Shoreham Road was reduced to a 20mph zone, the traffic would slow down.  As this road has a school crossing anyway, that would be a good reason to make this part of the road 20mph.

As parents we like our children to attend their local schools and to be able to walk to school rather than be driven. However, we want them to be able to walk to school safely.

We need the junction and the crossing to be made safer by slowing down the traffic and making motorists aware that the crossing is used by school children.

A petition has been started, a written petition and there is an e-petition on the council website and we hope to be able to present this to the March Cabinet meeting.”

43.7       Councillor Theobald responded; “Once again, can I congratulate you like your predecessor on putting the case very strongly and very well indeed.

          As with the other junction, again I know it extremely well and what I will do is to arrange for an officer to come out and meet with you on the site and discuss some of these points, because it may be that one or two of them we would be able to do.  You have already alluded to the fact that my Cabinet Member meeting is on 25 March and again there is a follow-up there, so no doubt we will meet again on 25 March.  I hope in the meantime an officer will meet with you and have a discussion and take on board some of the points that you have made.”

43.8       The Mayor thanked Ms. Slinn for attending the meeting and speaking on behalf of the deputation.  She explained that the points had been noted and the deputation would be referred to the Environment Cabinet Member Meeting for consideration.  The persons forming the deputation would be invited to attend the meeting and would be informed subsequently of any action to be taken or proposed in relation to the matter set out in the deputation.