Agenda item

A Member expressed concern that the proposed scheme failed to conform to the London Cycling Design Standards. She said that she had spoken to Active Travel England who had offered to provide a free formal design review. She offered this service to officers and to the Portfolio Holder and moved that the recommendations be deferred. The Chairman pointed out that the scheme had already been subject to a stage one road safety audit.

Ward Councillor Michael Tickner spoke in respect of the application and said that he had long campaigned for road safety to be improved at this junction. The area had become increasingly popular with the upgrade to Beckenham  Place Park that had been undertaken by the London Borough of Lewisham with Lottery funding. He said that a pedestrian crossing was needed on the main Southend Road. There had been a history of accidents caused by motor vehicles exiting Park Road with limited visibility. He said that it was essential that something should be done. He proposed that the scheme should go ahead but that if accidents continued, then the option should still be available either to close Park Road or to at least to close it for vehicles emerging from it.

Councillor Chloe Jane-Ross said that she supported the proposal because it was a dangerous junction with a blind corner and it was urgent that action be taken to slow down speeds and to reduce the number of accidents at the junction. It was clear that a crossing was needed for children in the area going to school. She felt that the proposals would improve road safety and recommended that the proposal be approved. She recommended that any future substantive changes that may be required should come back to the committee but at this stage doing nothing was in her view not an option.

A Member stated that the Portfolio Holder was not an expert in these matters and therefore she would like the engineers to confirm to the Committee that the proposal was indeed compliant with national safety standards. She pointed out that this scheme would cost in the region of £125k and so there should be no doubt from the offset that this scheme would be successful and would meet safety standards, not requiring changing later. She felt that the proposal should be deferred so that the committee could have a proper consultation with engineers with respect to road safety. Councillors would not wish to support anything that jeopardised the safety of their constituents. She pointed out that no one from Park Road had shared in a consultation because they did not have the opportunity.

In response the Principal Transport Projects Manager addressed the committee and said there was nothing unusual with the design. Indeed such schemes had been implemented across the UK and one had recently been implemented at Scotts Lane in Bromley. Therefore as the Council had implemented such schemes for many years he did not understand the level of concern that had been generated. He informed the committee that the Council had used Watermans who were independent, experienced and competent design consultants. Judgement and experience were also required. Watermans would not have signed off the project if they felt it was dangerous, as they would not wish to incur reputational damage.

The Principal Transport Projects Manager explained that the design would go through a road safety audit process using independent road safety engineers who were experienced in design. They would make a determination concerning the safety of the scheme. It was explained that there would be another three stage process after this. Stage three would check to ensure the scheme had been implemented in accordance with the actual design and that no issues had arisen. In stage four, 12 months of collision data would be collected to ensure that the design was safe. All these stages would be undertaken by independent parties. The Council would be obligated to address any issues that arose in these stages.

The Portfolio Holder for Transport, Highways and Road Safety urged the committee not to defer the scheme but to accept it. He explained that £125k  included the cost of two pedestrian crossings; each pedestrian crossing costed about £25k. He pointed out that Bromley already had four arm and five arm roundabouts in various locations.

Councillor Igoe moved for a deferral and this was supported by Cllr Bance. The Chairman moved for acceptance of the scheme and this was seconded by Cllr Fawthrop. A vote was taken and eight members voted to accept the scheme as per the recommendations in the report.

RESOLVED:

1) That the Portfolio Holder be recommended to approve the proposal to improve the safety of the Southend Road/Park Road/Foxgrove Road junction, including the provision of new pedestrian crossing and cycle facilities.

2) That the Portfolio Holder be recommended to delegate any minor changes to the design at the detailed design stage to the Director of Environment and Public Protection after discussion with the Portfolio Holder.