Lorries in unsuitable places

HGV making its way through Sudbury on Wednesday morning

For some time I have been working with officers and  a small group of councillors at the County Council whose Divisions are particularly badly affected by heavy lorries.  These, as we know,  damage property while terrorising pedestrians and other road users while they make their inexorable way to their destinations.
 
Recently we received some good news from Ordnance Survey who are working in their own way to try to improve matters.  the organisation is creating a product it is hoped will by taken up by the providers of Satnav systems and deter drivers that try to save time and money by taking unsuitable routes.    The product will highlight features on roads such as  weight restrictions and signs informing of unsuitability for heavy vehicles.  It will also give information about the maximum road width.    We have suggested that Ordnance Survey include 'pinch points' too, such as the notorious corner at The Bell in Clare. and other spots in places like Lavenham and Bildeston.


It is hoped that the use of SatNavs that provide this important information, might be made compulsory in due course, but this will depend on new legislation.   The national problem of heavy lorries on unsuitable roads was debated a little while ago in St Stephen's Hall, with our own MP,  James Cartlidge, making a positive contribution.   It is good news that finally this problem, which has become more pressing as HGV's have become larger and larger, appears to be achieveing the recognition that it deserves.

Highways matters

Pothole prevention, learn all about it!

Whenever the public are asked to comment about services provided by the County Council it is always matters relating to roads and highways that comes out as the top priority.

We do many other things of course, including looking after vulnerable adults and children, supporting education, the fire service etc. etc.  These services are of course vital, particularly for those being supported, but it is the state of the roads that always attracts the most attention, and is the place that most people want us to put our efforts and our resources.

There is a huge amount of information on the Suffolk County Council website about highways matters, and, in addition, a newsletter 'Highways Matters' is sent out regularly.  These newsletters can be accessed via the website HERE.

A new edition has just come out, and it highlights the problems related to pothole prevention. Enjoy!

 Taking the dog for a walk in London this weekend I was amused to see the sign above.

National Grid are currently replacing some 350 miles of obsolete gas main under the capital. This is causing a good deal of disruption to traffic.  It is clear that, as in Suffolk, local residents are not always convinced that the organisation of the project is as good as it should be.  It seems to people that works are often abandoned by workmen for an excessively long time.With its notice  National Grid is obviously trying to pre-empt complaints about this.  I wonder if it has any effect? Or if, indeed, whether improvements could in fact be made.

On my walk I was, as always, amazed at the wide variety of things of interest that one passes in London in the course of a brief excursion.  In addition to the reminder of highways headache in Gresham Street, I passed the wonderful Watts Memorial in Postman's Park (part of which is pictured above). We also took in the memorial to Heminge and Condell, who collected Shakespeare's plays for publication after his death, some strange seats that look like extracted teeth, and a fine cherubic angel above the door of St Anne and St Agnes, the Lutheran Church.

Whatfield and Bildeston Schools win silver road safety awards

The Junior Road Safety Officers at two schools in my Division, Bildeston and Whatfield, have won silver awards for their efforts in promoting good road safety practice.

On Friday afternoon I attended the awards ceremony held at Endeavour House to see the children receive their certificates.  Proceedings were presided over by the new Cabinet Member for Highways, James Finch, and I must say he made a very good job of engaging the children, and the rest of us, in thinking about safety on the roads.

We all learned about a number of ways in which we can all improve road safety.  In addition two of the schools present made excellent presentations about safe cycling to school.  There was also a question and answer session where road safety officers and a representative from the police gave us the benefit of their knowledge and experience.

The Junior Road Safety Officer scheme, which is promoted by the County Council, is a great way to engage children with this important topic.  The children concerned also learn other skills, not least how to promote a campaign to their fellow students. Please get in touch with me if you want to know how your local school can look into participating.

And yes, cycling on the pavement IS a criminal offence!

Pupils from Bildeston School with their certificates.

Highway faults reporting tool improved!

Arrows showing status of the work

It has been possible to report highways faults and problems on line for some time.  In fact I have often found that this is the best way to get problems such as potholes sorted out quickly.

Suffolk County Council has recently launched a new online reporting tool, which is an improvement in a number of ways.  The new system is map based, which means that, provided you know where you are, you can plot exactly where the fault can be found.  This is a key issue for our engineers, who previously, it seems, sometimes could not work out from residents' reports where the problem was situated.

In order to avoid duplication, once a fault is reported this is marked with a coloured pin (see above).  It is also possible to update the map to show progress on the work.

The system allows photographs to be uploaded and also can be accessed via tablets and mobile phones.  This means that, if you can get a signal, you can report the problem instantaneously!

Rapidity does not end there apparently.   Once a new report is added to the system it is forwarded immediately to the relevant traffic engineer or technician.  Where the person who reported the incident provides an e mail address, they should receive an acknowledgement and updates on progress.

The new reporting tool should be used for logging matters related to road maintenance,  road safety and traffic management.  It should not be used for emergencies, and there is an alternative number on the site for this purpose.

I am sure that the new system will be an improvement on the previous model and I am pleased that the council has made this investment.  My only concern is that, when electronics interface with human beings, the latter will prove as responsive as the former.

Time will tell!

To access the new tool click here.

Winter gritting

Any day now I expect some commentators will be telling us that 2015 is, so far, ‘the warmest year on record’.  Indeed, on the whole, this winter has not been too bad so far, so it would be better to get this message of doom out quickly before temperatures fall.

It may surprise readers to learn that so far this winter Suffolk County Council’s fleet of road-gritters have been out and about some 26 times on the 1225 miles of road in Suffolk that are ‘priority 1 treatment routes’, and 12 times on the 845 miles of ‘priority 2 treatment routes’ (additional roads which are treated when it is forecast to freeze after 9 a.m.).  The 34 Priority 1 routes take some two and a half hours to complete.

This year, thanks to the contract with Keir MG, nine new Econ gritters have been purchased to replace ageing ones in the fleet, and a further 29 have been upgraded.  This capital expenditure would not have been possible without the financial advantages brought by the new contract.

It is fair to say that some aspects of the contract have not proved too successful so far, and  urgent action is being taken to put this right.  It does seem however that Suffolk Highways’s preparedness for winter, warmer than average or not, is better than it has been for some years.

Who 'owns' the verge?

Yesterday I had one of my regular meetings with Steven Merry from Highways.  Steve 'looks after' the roads in Babergh and he is our first point of call when we have problems, or if we want to spend some of our highways budget.

Given that the Cosford Division stretches from Cockfield in the north west to Elmsett in the south east, taking in Lavenham, Bildeston and Kersey on the way, I have more stretches of road, and thus more problems than most!

I have developed a nice spreadsheet which I share with Steve when we meet, which shows us where we are with various issues in different parishes.

One of the more interesting problems at present concerns a road which is closely bounded by a small river a yard and a half or so to the south of the road.  On the bank between the river and the road are a number of bushes and small trees.  From time to time these grow out across the road, to the annoyance of local farmers who cannot get their machinery through.   When this happens the Parish Council draws it to the attention of the Council and eventually they come along and cut it, if the farmer has not got there first.  When I was elected the Parish Council asked me if I could look into the question of whether the County Council 'ought' to cut these bushes as a matter of course because ' it is their responsibility'.

We have not finally got the answer to this question yet as some 'deep research' will need to be done looking at old maps and so on.  In theory keeping foliage etc. from the highway is the responsibiltiy of the landowner who owns the land over which the road runs.  Often landowners on either side of the road will actually own the land 50% of the way across it.  It is actually very rare for the County Council to 'own' the verge, or indeed the land, although it will keep a stretch of a couple of feet or so from the carriageway clear.  In this case the council is happy to do this, but along most of the stretch this two feet does not include much of the foliage, which stands further back.

So assuming that the land does not belong to the council, who does own the land between the road and the river?  This depends on where the ancient boundary actually runs, along the centre of the road, or along the centre of the river.  In the former case, responsibility for the hedgecutting will rest with the landowners on the south side of the road, and they will also own all the land over which the river runs.  If the latter, then the residents on the north side of the road will own  the land over which the road, and half of the river bed, and it will be up to them to cut the hedges.

I fear that one set of residents won't be very happy when the outcome of Steve's research is known.  Perhaps it would have been better to leave the 'informal' arrangements in place?