The City Council’s traffic engineers have sent us a summary of the points made in the consultation on their plans for Marlborough Hill, and have given a detailed response to each of the points. You can download their document here: marlborough-hill-consultation-results. The main points are listed below, with the Council’s response summarised in italics:
The pavement-widening is on the wrong side, both for pedestrians and for deterring illegal downhill vehicle traffic. This was to bring the west-side pavement up to a better width. Sharing the widening between the two sides would have been much more expensive and would have made the turn from Marlborough Hill Place difficult. In practice it won’t make any difference to traffic which side is widened – people who want to break the law and drive down will do so.
Other suggestions for slowing traffic – alligator teeth, a downhill cycle lane, weight limit, speed limit, ‘shared space’ paving, change of priorities against uphill traffic, wider western footway extended all down the hill, speed bumps – were all either not allowed by regulations, too expensive, or ineffective.
Some signs will be illuminated because regulations require that. The suggestion of a “two-way traffic” sign in Eugene Street was accepted.
What happens next? David Sarson, the responsible Traffic Engineer, says: “I intend to leave a couple of weeks now, in case anyone wishes to respond to my response, following which I will progress the detail design and assemble the contract prior to commencing site works. The works will probable necessitate a road closure which will take approximately six to eight weeks to procure so I will get that started asap (it can always be postponed); we are therefore realistically looking at an earliest works start date of early to mid May.”
So, if you have views, please just add a comment below and copy it to David Sarson: da**********@br*****.uk
