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George Batten
Director Environmental Services
Wiltshire County Council
County Hall
Trowbridge
BAl4 8JB
Dear Mr Key,
Road Safety (Mrs Catherine Herve)
Further to my acknowledgement letter of the 239492 December
2003 I am now in a position to provide a full reply.
Wiltshire, along with all other Highway Authorities has been
tasked by the Government to reduce by 40% the number of people
killed and seriously injured on our roads by 2010. This is in
addition to the over 50% reduction we achieved against the Government
target set for 2000.
To help achieve this we have a joint road safety strategy with
the Police and Health Authority covering both accident prevention
and accident reduction.
Considerable resources are focused on accident prevention measures,
including driver education. This is considered particularly
important given that in 95% of accidents driver error is a contributory
factor.
The resources available for accident reduction involving engineering
measures are used for remedial measures at the locations with
the worst accident problems. This information is established
from the monitoring of injury accidents which occur in the County.
In 2002 the downward trend in casualty numbers continued, despite
increases in traffic flow, but there were still 1,326 injury
accidents on County roads.
The Regulatory Committee of the County Council resolved earlier
in the year that the flmding available for accident remedial
engineering measures be used to treat twenty sites from the
200 sites on the accident cluster list. The remaining sites
will be treated in future years as resources become available.
The cluster sites are the locations, e.g. bends, junctions,
where in the past three years there have been three or more
injury accidents.
An examination of the accident record for the A3094 in the
vicinity of the Southbank properties and the bend shows that
it does not appear in the top 200 sites on the accident cluster
list. In the circumstances it is difficult to justify diverting
resources away from the treatment of cluster sites for remedial
measures on the A3094.
It is indeed unfortunate that the bend has been the site of
two suicides recently. It is a regrettable fact that if individuals
are intent on causing harm to themselves then there is very
little that Highway Engineers can do to prevent this. Following
the two suicides the bend was examined by the Police and my
staff and the signing and road markings are currently considered
appropriate for the circumstances.
Turning to Mrs Herve's concerns I would encourage both her
and other residents to reverse into their car parking spaces
and not reverse out onto the A3094. Should an incident be attributed
to a reversing vehicle it is likely that the driver of that
vehicle would be charged with driving without due care. Whilst
I fully understand and sympathise with Mrs Herve's concerns
I am unable to help at this time for the reasons set out above.
I would however be supportive of the provision of an access
road to the rear of the Southbank properties as this is likely
to overcome most of the concerns that Mrs Herve raises. Unfortunately
the County Council is unable to help progress this as it is
not possible to use Highways monies for private betterment.
I would recommend that Mrs Herve and her neighbours approach
Wilton Estates direct to see if they would be prepared to help.
The Salisbury District Council Planning Department would also
need to be involved and may be able to provide further advice.
If the access road were to be contained on land wholly in the
ownership of Wilton Estate this may help overcome the possible
legal complications to which you allude in your letter.
I am sorry that I cannot be more helpful on this occasion but
hope you find my comments made useful.
Yours sincerely
George Batten
Director
Environmental Services Department
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