Highways and Planning Cabinet Member – Minutes – 21 May 2008

33 (1) PROPOSED TRAFFIC REGULATION ORDERS – Prohibition of Right Turn, A18 Kingsway, Church Lane Junction – The Service Director Highways and Planning submitted a report for consideration of objections submitted by residents to the proposal to introduce a ‘Prohibition of Turning’, Traffic Regulation Order on Church Lane, Scunthorpe at its junction with the A18 Kingsway.

The Safer Roads Traffic Section received, collated and analysed data associated with reportable injuries that occurred on the roads of North Lincolnshire. The analysis involved investigating possible accident causation factors and developing appropriate solutions wherever this was possible. Locations with the most significant problems were prioritised and these formed the Local Safety Scheme (LSS) programme of works.

The junction of Church Lane, Scunthorpe with the A18 Kingsway had been identified as a serious cause for concern. Between 2003 and 2007, a total of 17 accidents had been recorded. Of these accidents, seven had involved the right turn movement out of Church Lane. Furthermore, six of the 17 fell into the ‘Killed and Seriously Injured’ category.

Following consultation with ward members and residents a traffic regulation order was advertised in February 2008 to prohibit right turn movements out of Church Lane onto the Kingsway. Two objections were received and were summarised in the report.

Resolved – (a) That, having given due consideration to the objections received, approval be given to the implementation of the Traffic Regulation Order to provide a prohibition on right turning movements out of Church Lane onto the Kingsway, (b) that the objectors be written to with notification of the decision, and (c) that the impact of the order be monitored.

34 (2) Prohibition of Waiting, George Street, Keadby – The Service Director Highways and Planning submitted a report for consideration of objections submitted by residents to the proposal to implement a ‘No Waiting at any Time’ Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) on George Street, Keadby.

The Safer Roads Traffic Section had been made aware of a problem associated with parked vehicles in the turning heads at the east and west ends of George Street in Keadby. A letter was initially received during early February 2007 from the Neighbourhood Watch Group Co-ordinator and signed by many of the residents of the street, in which, comments were made about the difficulties being caused with emergency vehicles, mini-buses, refuse vehicles and generally larger delivery vehicles not being able to turn around due to inconsiderate parking.

Turning heads were usually constructed at the ends of cul-de-sacs to facilitate the turning around of vehicles and should be kept clear of parked vehicles. A statutory notice outlining the proposed Traffic Regulation Order for ‘No Waiting at Any Time’ was advertised on 24 January 2008, one objection was received and was summarised in the report.

Resolved – (a) That, having given due consideration to the objection received, approval be given to the implementation of the Traffic Regulation Order to implement ‘No Waiting at Any Time’ in the turning heads on George Street, Keadby, (b) that the objector be written to with notification of the decision, and (c) that the impact of the order be monitored.

35 (3) Prohibition of Waiting, Greenhill, Haxey – – The Service Director Highways and Planning submitted a report for consideration of objections submitted by residents to the proposal to implement a ‘No Waiting at any Time’ Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) on Greenhill, Haxey.

In Autumn 2003 a resident of Greenhill, Haxey informed the council of a problem caused by badly parked vehicles on the junction of Greenhill and High Street. Further concerns were expressed by the Accident Reduction Officer, Humberside Police, and Haxey Parish Council in 2004/05.

The council’s Traffic Team considered various schemes to resolve the problem and following discussions with the local MP, Parish Council and Humberside Police, it was agreed to implement a ‘No Waiting At Any Time’ TRO on Greenhill. Consultation took place with affected residents which resulted in seventeen responses, approximately 2:1 against the proposal.

The local shopkeeper also carried out his own campaign against the proposals and as a result received a total of 439 letters of objection. Following a site meeting which was convened by the local MP, it was agreed that the TRO would be modified and reduced in length. Although the Parish Council originally supported the scheme, they subsequently withdrew their support, citing it as being too restrictive for what amounted to a parking problem.

In February 2008, the modified proposal was advertised and a total of three formal objections were received, these were summarised in the report.

Resolved – (a) That, having given due consideration to the objections received, the proposed No Waiting at Any Time on Greenhill, Haxey, not be implemented, and (b) that the objectors be written to with notification of the decision.

36 (4) DUNSTALL STREET CAR PARK, PROPOSED DISPOSAL OF LAND – The Service Director Highways and Planning and Service Director Asset Management and Culture submitted a joint report seeking approval for the disposal of an area of car park for the development of an electricity sub-station.

G&W Developments Ltd were granted planning permission to redevelop a former factory on Dunstall Street, Scunthorpe. The proposed development would create flats for private ownership.

The approved plans included an electricity sub-station within the basement car park of the building. If the developers could locate the sub-station outside of the building it would make access to the sub-station easier for future maintenance and enable them to create two more parking spaces within the building.

The developers approached the council to enquire if part of the council’s adjacent pay and display car park could be disposed of to enable the sub-station to be built away from the development.

Further details were set out in the report and accompanying plan.

Resolved – (a) That the proposed disposal of part of the Dunstall Street car park as set out in the report, be approved, (b) that the land outlined in option 1 of the report be declared surplus to requirement, and (c) that the land declared surplus be disposed of on terms agreed by the Service Director Asset Management and Culture.

(5) NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE ROAD SAFETY PARTNERSHIP, MOBILE TELEPHONE ENFORCEMENT – The Service Director Highways and Planning submitted a report seeking approval of activity undertaken by the Road Safety Partnership, aimed at reducing the use of mobile telephones whilst driving.

At its meeting on 16 January 2008, North Lincolnshire Council unanimously approved a motion requesting, amongst other things, a clampdown on drivers who use their mobile telephones whilst driving in North Lincolnshire (minute 1538 refers).

The use of hand-held mobile telephones was made illegal in December 2003 and the penalty at that time was a £30 fine. In February 2007 those penalties were increased to a £60 fine and three penalty points on the driver’s licence. In very serious cases, penalties could be substantially more than this, including custodial sentences.

National research had shown that the level of impairment experienced by a driver when using a mobile telephone was equivalent to being twice over the legal drink-drive limit.

Resolved – (a) That the Road Safety Partnership utilise safety camera resources, as other priorities allow, to increase the effectiveness of targeting mobile telephone offending, (b) that the Partnership ensures an appropriately high priority be given to raising awareness of this issue amongst local businesses, when addressing occupational road risk, (c) that the Road Safety Partnership provide a report relating to mobile telephone enforcement, and other related activity, at each of its quarterly meetings for the next twelve months, and (d) that the report be presented to the next available Council meeting for information.

(6) NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE ROAD SAFETY PARTNERSHIP, SPEED MANAGEMENT STRATEGY SITES 2008/09 – The Service Director Highways and Planning submitted a report seeking approval of the proposed speed management strategy treatment sites for 2008/09.

The Road Safety Partnership’s speed management strategy was introduced in 2003. Each year it enabled the Partnership to identify the roads in North Lincolnshire, which had the highest priority when ranked by incidence of speed offending and accidents.

There were approximately 280 sites in the strategy, which had been assessed over previous years. The priority list changed each year, due to new sites being introduced and speed offending and accident rates changing on established sites.

The list of sites and the key changes for 2008/09 were summarised in the report and its appendix.

Resolved – That the proposed speed management treatment sites, as appended to the report, be approved.

(7) LOCAL SAFETY SCHEMES IMPACT – The Service Director Highways and Planning submitted a report to advise the Cabinet Member of casualty reduction performance at Local Safety Scheme sites and to provide an update on recent developments in the management of Local Safety Schemes, to reduce road casualties.

For a number of years the council had carried out a programme of highway improvement schemes, designed to reduce casualties at identified accident cluster sites. This was known as the Local Safety Scheme programme. Analysis of police road casualty data enabled accident cluster sites to be identified and more in-depth analysis to be carried out, to identify dominant accident causation factors.

Where engineering works could address a dominant causation factor, a scheme was included in the Local Safety Scheme list for assessment and prioritisation. The timing of works depended on the priority of each scheme and the availability of funding.

Historically, there were a number of high-incidence accident cluster sites, where the introduction of engineering improvements resulted in significant reductions in casualties. The number of major cluster sites was reducing and therefore there had been a partial shift towards treating longer sections of highway, which had a wider distribution of casualties, and also towards more ‘predictive’ engineering works.

Treatment of known accident cluster sites remained the principal priority, but the annual Local Safety Scheme programme now included a balanced mix of the different categories of work described in the report.

The overall accident and casualty reduction figures and the casualty cost saving assessment of Local Safety Scheme work, were contained in the report and its appendix.

Resolved – (a) That the positive impact of the Local Safety Scheme programme over the previous five years be noted, and (b) that the recently introduced programme enhancement, to include route assessment and other related work, alongside local accident cluster site treatments, be endorsed.

The following item contains exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

40 (8) POST HPDC0005 CHANGE FROM FIXED TERM TO PERMANENT – The Service Director Highways and Planning submitted a report seeking approval for funding for a post in Development Control (post reference HPDC0005) to be made available to ensure that the post is retained on a permanent basis.

The post was a two-year fixed-term contract and had been funded by the Planning Delivery Grant (PDG) awarded to North Lincolnshire Council on an annual basis. Central Government had phased out the PDG, which was set for a five-year period, and which had now been replaced by an increase in planning fees as from April 2008.

The post had been essential within the Development Control team in order to achieve high performance delivery, in meeting Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) and Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPAs) set by Central Government.

Making the post permanent would help the Development Control service maintain improvements in service delivery, and make it easier to retain qualified, experienced staff who had been trained and developed as application case officers.

Further details were set out in the report.

Resolved – (a) That the proposals contained within the report be endorsed, and (b) that the report be referred to the Corporate Services Cabinet Member for approval.

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Where there is no report this is because it is exempt, as it contains information which is considered to be of a confidential nature, as detailed in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act.