Agenda item

An update on the rural HGV review

Resolved to:

(i)     Support the continuation of road signing decluttering programme.

(ii)   Support the continuation of a collaborative approach supporting parish councils to identify rural HGV and traffic issues and note that a report will be brought back to this committee for decision.

Reasons

(i)     The project crosses parish and local committee boundaries so it is prudent to reach a consensus with the parish councils before seeking a decision from the relevant local committees.

(ii)   Parish councils, with their in depth knowledge of their locality, are ideally placed to play a central role in identifying superfluous signing and street furniture and a number have already been trialling the using the Norfolk risk assessment process.

(iii)Much work on decluttering audits by parish councils has now taken place and so it would be timely to advise the committee of progress or the trial process before rolling out the initiative to other areas.

The Transport Planning Engineer presented his report which was an update on progress on the combined rural Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) review and de-cluttering project being carried out in the central part of the Surrey Hills area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) currently focussed mainly within the Parishes of Shere, Ewhurst and Albury. This area is illustrated by the map contained in annex 2 of the report.

 The review seeks to reduce HGV traffic from this rural area by redirecting the vehicles to the larger A’ roads around the periphery. Local parish councils have been consulted so that a consensus can be reached about the approach and this consultation is still underway. The Transport Planning Engineer also hopes to win

  the support of the police for this proposal. This area is being piloted with the intention that the transport team can learn what approach is most effective in alleviating HGV traffic and thus roll out this scheme to other areas in Surrey.

In parallel to this work, the transport team, in collaboration with the parish councils, are identifying superfluous road signage and street clutter in order to improve the look of the street scene in the area and reduce driver distractions

The committee asked how the redirection of the vehicles would work and what impact on there might be on local businesses that relied upon the vehicles for deliveries. The Transport Planning Engineer advised that the signage that would be used would be the mandatory signage prescribed by the Department for Transport which would require a traffic order. The redirection could not be formally enforced but is intended to encourage HGV drivers to use more appropriate routes and avoid using rural lanes as a short cut. It would not hamper vehicles making deliveries as part of their rightful business. The Ordinance Survey have recently conducted an assessment to determine more appropriate routes for HGVs and there is a specific satellite navigation system for large vehicles that can filter out roads where there are restrictions.

Support was voiced for the de-cluttering scheme with members seeing the value of this process. The Transport Planning Engineer advised that the risk assessment would shortly be commencing in other areas and that a copy of the form that collects the assessment data had been included as annex 1 of the report for the members’ information

The Local Committee resolved to:

(i)     Support the continuation of road signing decluttering programme.

(ii)   Support the continuation of a collaborative approach supporting parish councils to identify rural HGV and traffic issues and note that a report will be brought back to this committee for decision.

Reasons

(i)     The project crosses parish and local committee boundaries so it is prudent to reach a consensus with the parish councils before seeking a decision from the relevant local committees.

(ii)   Parish councils, with their in depth knowledge of their locality, are ideally placed to play a central role in identifying superfluous signing and street furniture and a number have already been trialling the using the Norfolk risk assessment process.

(iii)Much work on decluttering audits by parish councils has now taken place and so it would be timely to advise the committee of progress or the trial process before rolling out the initiative to other areas.