Pedestrian access to the site is proposed via both Westoning Road and Station Road / Toddington Road. Whilst some pedestrian safety measures have been included in the Outline Planning Application for Westoning Road, nothing is included for the most dangerous route which is via Station Road.
Note: The proposed traffic calming on Westoning Road, (one way system under the bridge) will make Station Road worse than it already is due to drivers avoiding the inevitable long queues on Westoning Road, especially during school commuting hours.
The pedestrian access proposals for the Toddington Road site access ends at the railway bridge with no improvements across the bridge or beyond. The submitted plans show a widened footpath along sections of Toddington Road and a Puffin crossing situated next to the secondary site access and in between 2 blind bends.
As can be seen in the above drawing (marked up from the submitted plans) Children approaching the railway bridge from Station Road will be expected to cross roads no less than 5 times, with only 1 of these crossing points being a controlled pedestrian crossing.
Note: The Department for Transport document:
THE DESIGN OF PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS states on page 15 that for a 40mph road, the minimum desired visibility for all types of pedestrian crossing is 100m. Measurement of the straight section of Toddington Road shows that this is not achievable. This means that the proposed crossing will not meet safety requirements.
CBC Highways have already commented that they are unable to support a reduction to 30mph.
Para 5.4 states that ‘where trees and hedgerows are lost along Toddington Road as a result of proposed highways improvements, it is proposed these will be replaced to maintain a landscaped setting along Toddington Road’. This is enforced by the GI Strategy Plan (p44) which shows a wide green corridor along the frontage with swales behind. This presents a challenge for achieving 30mph speeds along Toddington Road. Retaining a rural character, with little obvious development frontage, is not conducive to encouraging drivers to reduce their speed. There is also a disconnect between proposed urbanising features of a wider footway, part shared footway / cycleway, pedestrian crossing, enhanced bus stops and traffic calming, with the objective to retain a landscaped setting. If conditions do not result in drivers travelling at 30mph or lower, the local highway authority could not support reduction of the speed limit, and the access designs would need to respect the prevailing speed of traffic.
The above statement and others from CBC highways are listed on the Development Brief page.
The situation beyond the railway bridge further up Station Road towards the cross roads will require some pedestrians to make another road crossing due to the footway ending and crossing over the road twice along the length of Station Road.
The most narrow point of the footway halfway up Station Road is only 82cm wide, vehicles pass dangerously close to footway users due to this point also being the narrowest point of the carriageway. The footway over the railway bridge only exists on the south side and is only 1.2m wide.
For more details and photos of the road safety issues along Station Road, refer to the Road Safety Issues page.