Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 2, Shire Hall. View directions

Contact: Helen Barnsley  Senior Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

1.

“The Warwickshire County Council (The Ridgeway & Bishopton Lane, Stratford upon Avon) (Restricted Road) Order 2022 pdf icon PDF 300 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Wallace Redford stated that any member of the public had the right to object to consultation process or recommendations that the council/a councillor planned to make. The purpose of this meeting was to decide whether the planned decision needed to be changed or rejected and there would be no decision made in this meeting.

 

Mr Carl Conn was grateful for the information being made available, and he objected to this order based on two things: ‘that the County Council were failing at actioning their climate change emergency declaration from 2019 as they were prioritising car transport and not making enough cycling provisions. It was also not addressing the obesity epidemic, the issue of poorer people wanting to cycle as they could not afford cars or the fact that cycling was not safe. The order did not acknowledge the 3000 houses that were being developed at the time of the meeting which will mean an extra 4000 car journeys on the road. There was land on the plan that had been reserved for further development which could mean an extra 5000 houses and 5-7000 extra car journeys. The plan did not address the ‘pinch point’ over the bridge (which is the responsibility of the Canal Trust) which was dangerous without the extra houses. The order also did not include a cycle plan for the school and students who may plan to cycle on this road which lead to the A46, M40 and railway station due to the speed cars go on it. Roads need to be prioritised for pedestrians and cyclists with a separate cycleway, more people were likely to cycle due to increased petrol and gas prices. The council’s plans were short term and needed to be developed for the distant future. It was the council’s responsibility to make roads safe for all cyclists in Stratford’. 

 

In response to Mike McDonnell (Senior Engineer), Carl Conn stated that they knew there would be 3000 houses on the one spot of land as well as all the land going towards Wilmcote.

Mike McDonnell was aware of developments south of the A422 which were all decisions made by Stratford District Council; this plan was to accommodate the 500 houses being developed between Bishopston Lane and the A46 which was currently a 40mph road. There were also a number of crossing points between Bishopston and Stratford; to mitigate this flow five uncontrolled crossing points and two pelican crossings either side of the traffic island were planned. The order also proposed a 30mph speed limit reduction from the current 40mph so it would be safer to cross. Speed data on Bishopston lane was obtained and shared with the police and this showed that the average speed limit on this road was 35mph and on the Ridgeway it was 38-39mph. Ladder markings were proposed to go in the road to reduce the road space to 2.4m each direction to make vehicles travel slower.

 

Carl Conn stated that pinch points bring cars and cyclists closer together  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.