Permanent lights for Woodmill

stop lightThe road at Woodmill Bridge will finally be repaired, at a cost of £60,000, after Christmas. Permanent lights will also be installed at a further cost of around £100,000, it was revealed at a packed meeting on Nov 7. But questions were raised about what problem the lights would solve, and about the way the consultation that led to the decision had been carried out.

The council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport Cllr Gavin Dick told the meeting at Woodmill Outdoor Centre that the council would be sorting out the whole ‘containment issue’ straight after Christmas, with repairs costing around Ł60,000. This essentially means mending loose barriers that stop people driving into the river. The weakness was discovered in 2004, and temporary lights appeared shortly afterwards — and have remained ever since. They are unpopular with both motorists and Woodmill locals, largely because of the long delays, and the safety, noise and pollution problems residents say they cause.

 

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Cllr Gavin Dick
Cllr Gavin Dick

Survey
In addition to mending the road, Cllr Gavin Dick told the meeting that permanent traffic lights would also be installed next summer, at a cost of Ł100,000. He said that 2,500 people had responded to a survey and 80% of these wanted lights on the Bridge. He stressed that options around phasing and even turning the lights off during non-peak periods were also under consideration, especially to reduce the noise from late night queues — a key concern near the Bridge. The other survey options, of completely re-building the Bridge or closing it to traffic were not viable, he said.

Bitterne Park Councillor Phl Williams said that this was the first survey of its kind, which tried to involve people in decision making. He said that there had been an option on the original survey to close the Bridge, and that councillors wanted to make sure ward residents had a say.

Council officer Phil Marshall explained that he believed traffic lights would make the situation significantly better than the current temporary arrangement. He said the distance between lights would be greatly reduced, thus reducing waiting times; he also said he will investigate whether the signals could be turned off during quiet periods, or whether detection equipment could be incorporated, to turn the signal to green if no other car is in the system, to reduce waiting times and noise from waiting vehicles at night; and he said that with permanent lights it is possible to adjust the timing to favour a certain direction at particular times of the day.

Benefits
But the reason for the additional expenditure on traffic lights, when the road was about to be restored to its original state after Christmas, was questioned: “So why do we need traffic lights or anything put in, when that area has been contained?” asked one resident who has lived near Woodmill for 45 years. “You’re now going to spend around Ł60,000 putting that area right, and now you want to go and put traffic lights in on top of that. Why do you want to put the additional cost on board?” The speaker added that there had been nothing wrong with the road for the last 45 years, but all of a sudden, because a wall went down, it seemed that money needed to be spent on traffic lights.

meeting
Residents at the Woodmill meeting


Consultation

The design and distribution of the consultation survey, including the online version, was also much debated: “If you ask drivers who come through here if they’d like lights, by and large they’ll say that they would because they view the Bridge as a place that’s in the way from where they are to where they want to get to,” said one speaker, who added that there was no way respondents could say how they used the Bridge — for example as a driver, a pedestrian, a cyclist or a mum with a pram.

“I live near here and I use the Bridge mainly as a pedestrian and a cyclist, and it’s more dangerous with the lights than it was before, because the cars charge over the Bridge too fast, and it’s extremely dangerous at the pinch point: that’s where you need the most protection,” he said.

“The people walking across the bridge weren’t even given the questionnaire,” claimed another resident.

Calming
And the need for calming measures especially on the western side of the Bridge - regardless of lights - was stressed by attendees: drivers coming over the bridge often accelerate away at great speed, it was explained, which is very dangerous especially for cyclists and pedestrians. Council speakers agreed they would look at this, as well as at signage issues on the Bridge — particularly the warnings for long and wide vehicles unfamiliar with the layout.

 

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