A Bratton Road resident says that the recent work by Wiltshire Council to improve pedestrian safety in the area has backfired and actually made the area less safe for motorists and pedestrians alike.
The scheme by Wiltshire Council has introduced a priority giveway system, along with widening the narrow pavement at Bratton Road. It was introduced to improve pedestrian safety following incidents of near misses with vehicles to those using the pavement. The priority give-way system gives priority to cars travelling out of town towards the cemetery.
However Ray Bradfield, who lives on Bratton Road, says that when vehicles approach the priority system from the town, they often speed up to get onto the narrow section before cars from the Bratton side get through the narrow section themselves.
He said, “Traffic attempting to proceed from Bratton is often thwarted by outgoing traffic from Westbury, either failing to recognise that vehicles are already in the narrow stretch, which is easily done as the sight lines are bad and the priority sign is in the wrong place, or just being too aggressive in their assumption that the priority sign gives them carte blanche.
“The result is that oncoming traffic takes to the widened pavement and there is an exchange of increasingly bad tempered and threatening invective. The impact of the road improvements has been to make a bad situation worse. I recognise that the original pavement was too narrow; having lived in Bratton Road for 20 years, I have frequently (literally) had brushes with traffic when walking.
“However, the changes have made it doubly hazardous for residents trying to turn out of their driveways. This is precisely what I objected to when the roadworks were being undertaken.”
Wiltshire Council has commissioned contractors to undertake a stage three road safety audit of the current scheme and they are awaiting their report which is due at the end of March. Should this highlight any areas of concern or requirements for changes, they say these will be actioned accordingly.
Speaking about the scheme, cllr Caroline Thomas, cabinet member for transport, said, “Since the new road layout was introduced, monitoring of vehicle speeds has found there to be no increase. Further data will be collected relating to vehicle speed and volumes.”
Alternative solutions
Ray Bradfield has suggested that the council should consider installing speed bumps near The Laverton before the narrow section, to encourage motorists to slow down and allow cars that are already on the narrow section coming from Bratton to pass.
He added, “As I believe in being positive, I would like to suggest some alternatives before there is either a fight between motorists (which there very nearly was recently) or worse, a serious accident.
“One such solution is to slow the traffic from The Laverton and from Alfred Street by installing speed bumps. Some ten years ago, I had to have scaffolding at the front of my house to have roof repairs, with traffic lights – the difference was remarkable and peaceful.
“Another alternative would be to return the road to its previous arrangement and place the priority sign nearer to the pinch point, so that those travelling from Westbury can clearly see traffic waiting or proceeding from Bratton.
