WESTBURY Town Council will contribute £1,073 towards a survey they hope will kickstart a scheme to stop drivers from using a lane popular with walkers and cyclists as a “rat run”.
The council’s highways, planning and development committee voted unanimously to propose a high level intervention programme for Frogmore Road, presented to them as one of three proposed options, by Wiltshire Council’s senior traffic engineer Kirsty Rose.
Road widening by cutting back vegetation, creating a footpath, and installing 20mph signs could all feature in the £4,295 works which Kirsty said would aim to retain the rural character of the lane. The matter will now go to Wiltshire Council’s Community Area Transport Group for consideration.
“It’s a more dramatic change than low or medium level interventions,” Kirsty said. “Along the verge line on the northern edge, we have enough highway space if we were to clear some vegetation, to create a more traditional footpath route.
“A lot of vegetation backing onto properties would have to go, which could be a concern to residents as it provides them some screening. So we would need to look at what planting we could do to mitigate that.”
A link for Rosefield Way could be created and continued up to Slag Lane where the junction could be narrowed and a crossing point provided from Slag Lane onto Frogmore Road, members heard.
“There would need to be negotiation with landowners and residents, and further along, opposite the lake, the highway boundary extends 1.5m into the vegetation,” Kirsty explained. “We need to try and work around it to gain more space, and the opportunity might come to look at the features, where we highlight those areas as more of a shared area for pedestrians, dog walkers etc, so drivers are aware people might be there.”
That patch could be transformed into a focal point of the route, a destination for walkers, Kirsty added.
The scheme met most of the requirements from residents and could also include 20mph signage on Hawkeridge Road and Slag Lane and pedestrian route signage linking the area to the town centre and railway station.
Cllr Ward Jones said, “I really like the high intervention and I’d like to have clarified that if we have a traditional footway put in, are you going to reclaim that from the vegetation rather than reduce the width of the road as it’s very narrow, and I trust that pedestrian warning signs will be included?
“I hope we could take the lead, in conjunction with Kirsty, and set up a meeting for residents in the locality,” cllr Jones said. “We have a very good Facebook website for residents of Lakeside. This is a very vital part of the life of local people in that area. It’s a very important thoroughfare and we need to make sure the residents own this as the council comes and goes, but residents stay.”
Kirsty replied, “We would likely engineer in some changes to the environment that would make it less favourable to use as a rat run, without preventing traffic through.” 20mph signs could be included, she added, but there was no need for pedestrian warning triangles as pedestrians would use the new footpath, not the road.
Cllr Jane Russ said she cycled on the road quite a lot, so appreciated the issues. Cllr Mike Sutton worried that widening the carriageway might encourage speeding, rather than slow drivers down.
“The more we make it visible, the more we encourage people to drive faster,” he said, and added he had been hoping for more physical interventions such as speed bumps.
Kirsty responded, “We have to look at how we can manage this. it’s important to keep the character of the lane as it is. It’s quite rural.
“We have to look at features and how we can highlight features like the lane and slow down drivers without using urban traffic calming features.
“We wouldn’t want to do anything that would increase speeds.”
Councillors voted unanimously in favour of supporting the high level programme and also of making the 25% contribution towards the pre-requisite survey.
