Meeting documents

To consider a report in relation to the petition and to ask the Panel to make a decision based on the options available, and in accordance with the Petitions Scheme.

All views having been taken into consideration the petition panel agreed that further investigation was required particularly as the impact of the planned parking restrictions and 7.5 tonnes weight restrictions were not yet in place.

Discussions had taken place with colleagues responsible for the planned resurfacing work on Lubbecke Way.  There was commitment to install the new parking restrictions during/or soon after the completion of the resurfacing work.  Factors outside of Dorset county Council’s control, such as poor weather, could affect these plans but parking restrictions would be prioritised for installation in conjunction with the resurfacing work.  The resurfacing work was scheduled to take place between 9 and 17 April.

The parking restrictions would be installed under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order which offered some flexibility.  If the planned extent of restrictions proved to be too much or too little they could be altered accordingly in a comparatively more straight forward way than standard Traffic Regulation Orders.  The concerns raised in the petition would be taken into consideration when the impact of the planned restrictions were assessed.

The planned parking and weight restrictions would be introduced to mitigate against some of the concerns raised in the petition it was felt that a decision on speed limit reduction and traffic calming measures could not be made until the impact of planned restrictions had been monitored. 

An additional reason for not taking the request for a 20mph limit further at this stage was due to it not ranking highly against other Traffic Regulation Order requests and,  therefore, no reasonable time frame could be placed on installation.

In the light of concerns raised with the speed of traffic on Lubbecke Way officers would consider the installation of SLOW road markings on the newest section of Lubbecke Way.  Traffic surveys would also be carried out on Lubbecke Way after the planned restrictions were in place to help monitor the impact, and surveys would be carried out on St Georges Way, Eddison Avenue and Ackerman Road to gather evidence of typical traffic flows and speeds.  The results of these surveys would be shared with the lead petitioner and the town council.

It was understood that Dorchester Town Council had recently commissioned a traffic survey on Lubbecke Way.  Officers would ask the town council to share the results of this survey so that they can be included within the monitoring of the planned restrictions.

The Community Speed Watch initiative managed by Dorset Police was discussed by the panel.  Whilst it was understood there were some concerns over how well such a group would be received by neighbours the Chairman encouraged the lead petitioner and others to look into this programme further.  It was understood that many other communities in Dorset who had set up groups were pleased they had done so.