Call for traffic safety moves in Calcutt
By Maggie Gell
RESIDENTS in Calcutt have started a campaign to try and get traffic calming and pedestrian safety measures installed.
And, if no action is taken, they have threatened to cause “absolute mayhem” with parking protests to reduce the traffic to single file at rush hour.
CARS – Calcutt About Resident Safety – a newly-formed group, is hoping council officials will take notice of its concerns and consider putting in traffic calming measures on the narrow road through Calcutt and down Blands Hill to Low Bridge.
Spokesman Marc Sturgeon, from Calcutt, said: “There is more traffic through Calcutt than the road is designed for. It is a B road that is busier than most A roads because it is used as a short cut and it is not safe for residents or pedestrians, with accidents occurring here on a regular basis.
“There is a suggested 20mph speed limit but it isn’t obligatory and is not enforced. It only applies in one direction. Low Bridge is the same width as the bridge on the B6163, near St James Retail Park, yet that bridge has paths on both sides and traffic lights to control the flow of traffic and is only a single lane. Traffic mounts the kerb regularly at Low Bridge. Why does it not have the same safety provisions?
“When walking in the area, you are forced to cross the road, but there are no safe places to cross.
“The council suggests there are no funds for safety measures, yet they are spending 174k on a traffic model. There was a public consultation regarding safety measures on Forest Moor, but nobody knew about it and it was closed before anybody could comment.”
Mr Sturgeon will be speaking to Knaresborough Town Council at its meeting on August 9 and hopes to gain its support to lobby North Yorkshire County Council.
He already has wide public support from local people, including MP Andrew Jones.
“We also believe traffic light changes at the top of Briggate have worsened the traffic flow,” added Mr Sturgeon, who is urging people to write to the council and their local MP.
He has started a petition which already has 200 signatures and is setting up a website.
“If the council fail to take action or show support, then we’ll undertake our own traffic calming measures. We will hold 'parking protests' that would involve using inventive, but legal, parking of vehicles in order to reduce the passage of traffic to a single lane in one direction during rush hour. This would cause absolute mayhem.”
In response, Mr Chris McGonigle, Urban Area Highway Manager from North Yorkshire County Council said he was aware of the issues Mr Sturgeon had raised.
“We have identified some potential road safety schemes for the Calcutt junction at Forest Moor Road and have proposals for Low Bridge but there are many other schemes across the county we are looking at too, and we have to prioritise them all and classify them in order of importance. There is also not a lot of funding available because of the road maintenance repairs being carried out following the bad winter, but it is likely we’ll have funding available in the future.”
To contact Mr Sturgeon or for more information about joining CARS, call 07970 904410 or you can email
marc_blackbird56@hotmail.com
maggie.gell@ypn.co.uk
l Tell us your views about traffic in the Calcutt and Low Bridge area by emailing kna.news@ypn.co.uk or writing to the Knaresborough Post, c/o Age Concern Knaresborough, Cliff House, Hilton Lane, Knaresborough HG5 8BX.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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