Councillors and committees

Agenda item

PETITIONS

To receive any petitions in accordance with Standing Order 68.  Notice should be given in writing or by e-mail to the Community Partnership and Committee Officer at least 14 days before the meeting.  Alternatively, the petition can be submitted on-line through Surrey County Council’s e-petitions website as long as the minimum number of signatures (30) has been reached 14 days before the meeting.

 

Four petitions have been received:

 

a) A petition with 351 signatures from Mr Roger Higgins requesting that the roads and pavements of Grove Way, Cranbrook Drive, Parkwood Avenue, The Drive and Cranleigh Road, KT10 are resurfaced.

 

b) A petition with 54 signatures from Mr Andrew Vautier requesting that felled trees in Meadowside, Walton on Thames are replanted.

 

c) A petition with 65 signatures from Mr Peter Almond requesting that the traffic island at the entrance to Heathside, Hinchley Wood is extended to prevent u-turns and the kerb at the left-hand bend at the entrance to Heathside is moved to enable better manoeuvrability.

d) A petition with 32  signatures from Ms Debbie Chitty requesting that restricted parking is introduced in Silverdale Avenue, Oxshott to place it on an equal footing with all other surrounding local roads.

 

 

 

Minutes:

Declarations of Interest: None

Officers attending: Nick Healey (Area Highway Manager NE)

         Peter Shimadry (Senior Traffic Engineer)

 

Petition 1

Grove Way

 

A tabled response to the petition is attached (website version only) as Annex A to the minutes.

 

The lead petitioner Roger Higgins spoke in support of the petition with 351 signatures that he was presenting.

 

He explained that due to the state of the roads and pavements in: Grove Way, Cranbrook Drive, Parkwood Avenue, The Drive and Cranleigh Rd the action group was formed.  Many people were keen to sign the petition due to their experiences.  Some had suffered sprained ankles, broken teeth etc.  The group had also carried out a traffic survey over a 3 day period from 6:30 am to 7 pm which recorded that on average 1200 cars per day used Grove Way. The speed of the traffic was monitored and it had been noted that a large number of council vehicles were using it as a shortcut. It was felt that the surface of the road was a safety issue with cyclists needing to swerve to avoid pot holes.

 

Mr Higgins cited responses made by officers and councillors when the issues had been discussed with them.

 

The Area Highway Manager explained that all the roads except Parkwood Ave had a concrete underlying structure with an asphalt overlay which had worn off.  The appearance for these roads was bad and the ride quality was not good, but the concrete structure was in tact with no safety defects.  A safety defect was one which was deeper than 40mm. Therefore these roads were not on any programme for resurfacing.  However Parkwood Avenue was of asphalt construction with deeper defects and was on the project horizon programme for 2017/18.

 

As regards the footways the Area Highway Manager explained they were a difficult challenge.  Many were surfaced with red tiles which many residents really liked and consider a heritage feature. The tiles were no longer manufactured and therefore if any footways with red tiles were repaired then the tiles would have to be replaced by asphalt, which many residents would not like.  However he did consider the footways a higher priority.  In response to the petition highways officers had carried out an ad hoc inspection of the carriageway and footway in the subject roads and 24 safety defects were found in the footways and 2 in the carriageways.

 

The response was for information only.

 

Petition 2

Meadowside Trees

 

A tabled response to this petition is attached (website version only) as Annex B to these minutes.

 

The lead petitioner, Mr Andrew Vautier, spoke in support of the petition with 54 signatures which he was presenting.  He explained that Meadowside had been a very pretty road until recently when as the trees had deteriorated they had been removed.  The trees had been planted in the 1930s and the removal of them had had a major impact changing the character of the area.  All but one resident of Meadowside had signed the petition and he requested that the trees be replaced with a variety from the approved list.

 

He added he was aware that the footway was not as wide as the response stated it should be, but did not think the footway needed to be wide enough to allow  two double buggies to pass.

 

The Area Highway Manager explained that society’s attitudes to trees had changed, new trees would not be planted in the same hard surface plot where a tree had been previously as trees planted and that trees planted in a hard surface needed more space for cultivation.  In addition SCC currently has no budget for tree planting or cultivation; the budget was purely for the maintenance of trees ensuring they were safe.  As regards the width of the footway, the minimum of 1.6m was the latest standard in new developments.

 

Member discussion:

 

Members said this was an unfortunate situation as the whole road was in support and also questioned the need for such a large tree pit.

 

The divisional Member stated that if the scheme could be costed, he could look at contributing some of his Member allocation.

 

Tony Samuels left the meeting.

 

The response was for information only.

 

 

Petition 3

Heathside

 

A tabled response to this petition is attached (website version only) as Annex C.

 

The lead petitioner, Mr Peter Almond, spoke in support of the petition with 65 signatures which he was presenting. He used slides (attached as Annex Ci) and a short video.

 

He explained that the entrance and exit to Heathside is used by over 1000 vehicles per day and they were asking for two vital improvements.  Firstly that the kerbstones were moved back by 1m to allow greater manoeuvrability.

 

He said, more importantly, that an independent survey had shown that approximately a quarter of the vehicles were using the island at the entrance to Heathside to do u-turns as well as a small number who were carrying out an u-turn illegally on the A309 itself.  The slides and video showed a few near misses and the second request was that the island at the entrance be extended 3m into Heathside.  Mr Almond also suggested another possibly better solution was to move the break in the central reservation to near the Esher fire station.  He ended by saying that the current situation was intolerable.

 

Cllr Roy Green left the meeting.

 

The Senior Traffic Engineer said he welcomed the information, but that, funding aside, he was concerned that extending the island would encourage drivers to go further into Heathside and turn around using residents’ driveways.  In addition statistics showed no collisions and funding needed to be allocated to collision hotspots.

 

The engineer moved on to the request for moving back the kerb line and explained  that could lead to vehicles entering the road at a higher speed and it would move the vehicles closer to the pedestrians.  In addition there could be utilities beneath the kerb. One solution could be to close the gap in the central reservation completely. 

 

Member discussion:

The divisional Member said that moving the gap to near the fire station was an interesting suggestion, he would not want the gap to be closed and he proposed that  improvements to the vicinity be kept on the priority  list.

 

Further comments included a suggestion that the gap in the central reservation be closed on a trial basis.

 

The Area Highways Manager added that sadly there were plenty of sites with casualties, including the junction at Esher Green, which Heathside could not be prioritised above, but would be happy to keep it on the priority list.

 

Margaret Hicks seconded the proposal from Mike Bennsion, the divisional Member, to amend the recommendation to allow the scheme to be kept on the priority list for 2017/18.

 

The Local Committee agreed:

 

(i) to keep the Heathside scheme on the priority list for 2017/18.

 

Cllr Roy Green rejoined the meeting.

 

Petition 4

Silverdale Ave

 

Details of the petition are attached as Annex D to the minutes (website version only).

 

The lead petitioner, Debbie Chitty, spoke to support the petition with 32 signatures which she was presenting.

 

She explained that Silverdale Ave was a narrow cul de sac and was the only road in the area without parking restrictions.  It was used for all day parking by visitors, employees of local businesses, school employees and contractors.  In addition parents dropped off and picked up children for the local schools, which accounted for 300+ vehicles per day.

 

The all day parkers, often 4x4 vehicles, parked across driveways making it difficult for residents to access their properties.  She added that the road had not been designed for this level of traffic, making the pot holes worse and there were also the health implications from the diesel to consider.

 

The divisional Member said he knew the road well, but the business in the local shops needed protecting and the issue should be considered as part of the parking review.

 

The Chairman confirmed a response would be provided at the next meeting on 27th February 2017.

Supporting documents: