Agenda and draft minutes

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Contact: Anne Beauchamp 

Items
No. Item

13.

Members' Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest

Members of the Committee are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non pecuniary interests, in connection with any items on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

 

Minutes:

Members of the Committee were asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests, in connection with the item on the agenda.

 

No such declarations were made.

14.

PETITION FOR LOWER SPEED LIMIT - BRIMSTAGE ROAD, BRIMSTAGE pdf icon PDF 103 KB

Minutes:

The Road Safety Officer for the Council Mr D Rees addressed the Panel and drew attention to sections of the written report submitted and answered question from the Panel.

 

A review of the speed limits for all Wirral’s A, B and strategic C class roads including Brimstage Road in 2010. A consistent approach was undertaken by an experienced consultancy firm in conjunction with Wirral’s Traffic Manager and Local Police experts; this review looked at the use of the road, the frontage, shopping area, volume and speed of traffic.

 

Brimstage Road (A5137) is a strategic east- west route connecting Heswall and the A540 to the M53 at Clatterbridge. Following the recommendation of the Speed Limit Review Panel the speed limit was reduced from 60 to 50 Mph on the rural sections of Brimstage Road.

 

An analysis of road safety records on Brimstage Road in 2014 was undertaken by the road safety team. During this study there had been 6 injury crashes over a 5 year period within the 50 Mph section of this Rd, the Officer went into detail concerning these crashes.

 

To improve safety on Brimstage Rd a scheme was approved by Cabinet in 2015/16 with the scheme which introduced additional warning signs, road marking and a minor realignment of the main carriageway around the bend at the junction of Brimstage Rd and Whitehouse Lane being completed in 2017.

 

During this investigation the Council received the petition with over 240 signatures from Mr Mason; in October 2016 the Road Safety Manager and Cabinet Member for Highways met with Mr Mason and interested members of the public to discuss concerns over the speed of traffic on Brimstage Rd.

 

The finding of additional speed surveys undertaken before the scheme in October 16 and May 17 showed the majority of traffic in both directions speed was between 41 and 46 Mph.

 

Poor visibility from entrances from properties is being addressed by Lever Hulme Estates by cutting back the hedgerows now the birds have finished nesting to increase visibility, though some of the properties (nursing homes could also improve their own visibility through similar measures).

 

It was noted that the Police had commented they would have further difficulty in effectively enforcing a lower speed limit on this road if reduced to 40 Mph due to there being no laybys to pull speeding cars over on to. The only viable method would be through pacing vehicles which would have a limited effect.

 

The Road Safety Management concluded his presentation of the report by referring to the conclusion from the panel of experts regarding to the wide scale speed limit review in 2010/11 is correct and the current 50 Mph speed limit for this road is appropriate and within the guidance set out by the Department for Transport.

 

 

The Lead Petitioner Mr Peter Mason addressed the Panel and answered questions asked; he explained to the panel his industry background as a Civil Engineer involved in infrastructures projects overseas. Mr Mason has lived on the Wirral for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.