Headington floods

Flooding in the district centre

David and I contacted the County about the flooding problems last week and the situation is even worse today (see @HeadingtonNews for latest photos)

We have reported this again today but we do acknowledge the fact that the county highways team are being called out to tackle similar situations right across the county. 

Please take care when crossing London Road.

Local Sustainable Transport Fund – a summary

We are being asked lots of questions about what the LSTF is. There is more guidance on the County Council website, but here is a brief summary.

The £5m bid for the project entitled Supporting Employment  Growth and Accessing Higher Education and Healthcare in Oxford was successful.  The majority of this funding is revenue but supported by £2.8million of capital from the County Council and Developer contributions.  The funding covers the period from now until the end of 2014/15.  The principal objective is to deliver better access to employment and health facilities in the Headington area through development of Park & Ride, and focuses on the expansion of Thornhill Park & Ride (to around 1,400 spaces) which has planning permission.  This extension will be complemented by:

*        innovative new bus services (using low carbon vehicles) linking P&R (including Water Eaton as well as Thornhill) to the hospitals, Brookes and Oxford University Headington campuses including Bus Stop upgrades to Premium Route standard; 

*        new bus priority along the London Road, to complete this project;

*        measures to encourage walking and cycling for  trips to local destinations from Thornhill (including a proposed cycle hub / hire scheme);

*        a comprehensive ‘Travel Choices’ project including working with key employers.

The  construction of the Thornhill extension was initially scheduled for June 2012 with completion by February 2013 – but timing was dependent on negotiations with landowner (Shotover) impacting on environmental works.  Selective charging of long stay users (principally London bound) of the site was proposed from April 2012 and would need to take into account the need to encourage hospital use and to cater for shift patterns.

Outline design is starting on the London Road bus lane which will look at options for extending bus priority on this corridor in both directions.  This may offer opportunities to improve the efficiency of operation of Headington Roundabout by reducing queues tailing back to it.  Public consultation on options is initially programmed for Spring 2012 with construction in May 2013, although there may be opportunities to bring this forward.

The other elements in the programme are currently at the scoping or preliminary stage:  bus stop upgrades, new bus services on the completion of the scheme, and cycle and pedestrian measures.  The travel choices project has started with travel surveys in early 2012 followed by personalised and workplace travel planning activities in early 2013.

Latest news from meeting on traffic scheme

A site meeting was held this morning by County officers concerning the new road traffic layout, and Ruth attended together with Patrick Coulter from Highfield Residents’ Association. Here are some notes of what was debated/agreed.

Signage

  • Better/clearer signage needs to be put out at both ends of Lime Walk pending roadworks to alert motorists – County investigating
  • New road junction layout signs in Lime Walk need to be more visible to make sure drivers see them well in advance of the junction, County checking this
  • County officers will not introduce priority direction signs as they believe the current arrangement cuts down traffic speed

Lighting/visibility

  • County officers will carry out a check on lighting at night on this junction. Street lighting have already made some recommendations and budget checks are being made
  • The type of lamps used may be changed, one lamp column may need moving but the number of lamp-posts will remain the same
  • Extra reflectors to be added to bollards (see below)

Bollards

  • Two extra bollards will be installed on each of the corners where there are none at present to protect pedestrians and stop traffic cutting corners – these to have reflectors on three sides
  • County officers will investigate whether reflectors can be put on additional sides of the existing bollards so they show up for traffic from All Saints Road
  • Meanwhile temporary bollards will be set up here as corner cutting by vehicles is perceived to be a significant issue by residents

Build-outs

  • There is a possibility that planter(s) may be fixed here in association with the HRA DIY traffic calming scheme
  • Meanwhile temporary bollards of some kind or a keep right sign will be set up

Speed monitoring

  • The location of the monitoring equipment was discussed. Officers are willing for a local resident to lead on location for this near the top end of Lime Walk midway between the entry points and the All Saints junction and there will be “before” and “after” checks at sites previously used
  • Officers noted that this cut down traffic scheme focuses primarily on helping pedestrians and cyclists by reducing speeds at specific conflict points, rather than reduce volume and speed of traffic throughout the whole area

Latimer Road

  • It’s acknowledged that residents are concerned about vehicles cutting corners on entering Latimer Road from All Saints Road and potential transfer of traffic from Lime Walk. The County is therefore considering how these two concerns could be dealt with inside the budget
  • It would be possible to construct  build-outs in All Saints Rd either side of the entry to Latimer Rd. This would reduce road space to one vehicle at a time
  • There is a concern about whether there would be enough turning space for large vehicles
  • Options will be considered, but in the meantime, one temporary build-out will be set up as a pilot on the Stapleton Rd side, and residents nearby will be informed before the pilot starts

Road safety issue

  • In response to a resident’s question about priority on ‘yellow brick roads’, it was confirmed that if a pedestrian has already started to cross the road then the motorist should give way. Otherwise the driver has priority.

We understand that HRA is holding a meeting to discuss suggestions for further improvements shortly, for example a change to some on road parking (rather than half-on, half off road as at present) in some residential streets, and a meeting on this will be held with the relevant County officer at a later date.

Accident figures down for Headington

The County officer responsible for the recording of accident data has confirmed to us that in the 12 months following road improvements in November 2010, the number of recorded accidents in the stretch of London Road between Osler Rd and Wharton Road was 3, compared with an average of around 8 per year in the 5 years prior to the scheme.

It’s difficult to draw definite conclusions from such a small amount of data, and figures can blip quite easily from one year to another, but this is still very positive news

All Saints/Lime Walk junction – is it working?

David and Ruth have been surveying some of the local residents in Stapleton Road, Lime Walk, All Saints Road and Nursery Close about the ‘new look’ junction. We have also consulted New Headington Residents’ Association exec and have emailed out a short survey to residents in Bateman St, Kennett Rd., Piper St., Perrin St., Windsor Street and Gardiner Street to get a balanced view of people’s concerns, and are aware that Highfield Residents’ Association is also in contact with the traffic planners on this issue.

We shall continue to survey residents about the junction over the weekend, and have raised a number of initial concerns with the County Transport Planning team who are looking into them and getting back to us.

The issues we have brought to their attention  already include: 

  • drainage after heavy rain,
  • the need for a kerbed edging at the corners of the junction (concerns for safety of young children scooting into the road without realising etc. and vehicles mounting pavements via dropped kerbs),
  • lighting,
  • signage (including priority arrows), 
  • inadequate lines of sight past parked cars – cars getting ‘boxed in’ behind parked cars and being unable to re-emerge safely, as well as how the junction is likely to be ‘finished off’.It’s important to remember that the scheme is not yet fully implemented as there is more work starting on raised entry treatments and works to Stapleton, Bickerton and Latimer Roads. It is too early to decide whether the scheme  has achieved a reduction in volume and speed of traffic.

 Some pedestrians have told us they are finding it easier to cross Lime Walk, and we have had some positive emails and responses from cyclists. There is some anecdotal evidence that the volume and speed of motor vehicles has lessened, but the worry is that this may have displaced to neighbouring residential streets, specifically Stapleton Road – we won’t be able to gauge the full extent of that properly until the rest of the works are finished.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with your views on this issue. It’s important that your ward councillors have an overall balanced view of resident opinion so that we represent you effectively. You can find our contact details under the Contact Us tab on this page. We will update this page when county officers respond

Manor Ground development: work starts next Monday

Ruth joined around 20 local residents at the meeting held by Green Square and Feltham Construction on 12 January. We discussed the new development of 27 flats, and more specifically how much extra construction traffic will be in and out of the site, at what times, and how noise and disruption can be minimised

Andy will be the site manager, and his name and mobile phone number will be displayed on the signage at the junction of London Road and the Manor Hospital delivery road from Monday 16 January.

The duration of the works will be 43 weeks. The schedule for works is still being finalised. Next Monday there will be one delivery from two different lorries with essential workplace units and groundworks will start next Wednesday. A crane will be located on site for some of the works. Timber frames will start to go up in late April/early May and the outside of the building is scheduled to take five weeks.

Construction will take place between 07.30 and 17.00 Monday to Friday with no weekend working (except in emergency) but vans will arrive on site from 07.00. Contractors have been advised to avoid delivering to the site between 08.00-09.00 and after 15.00

Access to and from the site

The private road from London Rd (next to Shell garage) will be made two way -access will be supervised by a Feltham employee.  It will be used by hospital delivery vehicles IN as normal,  by all construction vehicles IN and will be used OUT by any construction vehicle that cannot exit the site via Osler Rd. Special procedures will be put in place when very large vehicles enter the site, and the route for incoming works traffic will be from the Green Road roundabout down London Road.

Concerns raised by residents are being addressed. If any resident believes that sub-contractors are parking outside the site in their residential street they should report this to Andy in the first instance. If these issues are not resolved, or if vehicles are continuing to park illegally in neighbouring roads such as Beech Road or Osler Road, please inform Ruth and David and we will press for further action.

Ruth queried the egress of construction traffic (white vans) from the Osler Road exit as there is already traffic congestion and a history of near misses. Green Square are asking Feltham to come up with a scheme that restricts egress of construction traffic out of this exit – one possible solution is for all site traffic to exit the site between certain times via the private road, supervised by the site manager. We will keep you updated on this.

We have ensured the police, County Parking, Highways, the JR, and the bus services have been informed. If you would like further notes of the meeting please let us know, we will be contacting neighbours shortly to make sure everyone knows what’s going on.

Old Road works and bus route change

There was traffic chaos in Headington yesterday as motorists tried to grapple with the road works in the Old Road area. The level of consultation and information-giving to residents and road users appears to have been inadequate and we have complained about this on your behalf

Here is our latest information from the County officer

It is our intention to close the eastern section of Old
Road as part of the overall traffic management plan allowing the system to operate under 3-way control (and a pedestrian phase) to ease congestion in the area and specifically at the junction.  This does mean that traffic, including the number 10 bus will be diverted onto adjacent routes; to the north, the diversion route is via Margaret Road and York Road, and to the south, via Titup Hall Drive and Wood Farm Road.
Currently the closure of this section of Old Road is planned for Monday next week and will continue for approx 3 weeks whilst the works are completed and new permanent traffic signals are commissioned.

There is going to be a meeting today (Tuesday) to confirm that the changes above will definitely go ahead and to review whether suitable alternative routes will work. There is a lot of concern about the safety of Wood Farm school children during this period as the traffic volume near the school will be high

We shall update you as we get more information.

FAQs: taxis and bus gates

Following questions at the Osler Road residents’ meeting with various agencies including County, a senior officer has checked to see if taxis trigger bus lights – at the bus gate, it is only the general traffic lane that is signalised. (Sorry, his word not ours!)

Buses trigger a red light for traffic, but taxis do not.  There is a give-way marking at the end of the bus lane, so that taxis, cycles and anything else that does not trigger the red light for traffic can get out of the bus lane, giving way to any traffic in the general traffic lane.

Osler Road residents’ group gets results!

Busy Osler Road traffic

Congratulations to Louise and Jonathan for getting some action to make Osler Road safer when parents drop off and collect  children at the Nursery.

After the residents’ meeting that Ruth had facilitated with agencies including the bus companies, the Trust and the County, the residents’ group  has secured an agreement for an officer to

“instigate the work to install two sections of pedestrian guard rail on the public footpath outside the nursery, subject to a survey…before the end of July”

Another initiative resulting from this meeting is that a county member of staff will come and talk to the nursery children about road safety.

What a great result from our most recently set up residents’ group in Headington!