Category: TrafficCalming

Following the decision in August 2011 not to adopt a 30mph speed limit through the Parish of East Coker, East Coker Parish Council (ECPC) promised to investigate other options which could be implemented to meet the following requirement:

Improve road safety and reduce traffic speed within the Parish of East Coker.

It was believed that the justification for the implementation of a blanket speed limit across East Coker (or other traffic calming measures) had to be based on factual evidence.  In late August 2011, ECPC met with the Somerset Council Highways Department, who kindly agreed to perform a traffic survey of the Parish in order to provide this evidence.  This survey was performed over an eight day period (25/01/2012 to 01/02/2012), covering weekend use and school term time.  The data from the survey has now been delivered to ECPC and permission has been granted to distribute the data to the community.  

This summary reports describes the survey sites and method, and puts forward the conclusions and recommendations. 

[wpfilebase tag=file path=’TrafficSurveyAnalysisV1.1.pdf’ /]

Councillors Horsley and Griffin have produced an excellent funding bid for County Councillor Cathy Bakewell to apply for a Minor Highway Improvement grant to improve the walkway from Tellis Cross to the school.  We will know the outcome of the bid within the next couple of months.

The same Councillors have been working hard to analyse the data collected from the County Council’s speed survey through the village.  It is hoped that a report will soon be ready and shared appropriately with Parishioners. 

The working group and Chair have met for a further meeting with Mr Colin Fletcher (Area Traffic Engineer, Somerset County Council Highways).  SCC Highways have kindly offered to perform a traffic survey of the Parish later this autumn.  The survey will cover four areas of the Parish, each lasting for number of days spanning both weekdays (during school time) and the weekend.  The survey results and raw data will be made available to the Parish Council, from which a true assessment of the traffic problem can be made.

The Parish has also been added to the road marking refreshment programme, which shall repaint all the road markings in the Parish, many of which are badly worn.

Representatives from East Coker Parish Council met with Mr Colin Fletcher (Area Traffic Engineer, Somerset County Council Highways) in August 2011 to discuss the issues of traffic calming and road safety throughout the Parish.  The discussions were constructive with some good ideas produced.

As a result, the working group have produced a number of proposals for consideration:

[wpfilebase tag=file path=’ECPC Traffic Calming and Road Safety Working Group Proposals v1.1.pdf’]