Baydon Parish Council Meeting

On Monday 31st March 2014

An extra Baydon Parish Council meeting took place at the BYPA Hall on Monday 31st March 2014. The meeting had been arranged as a couple of Parish Councillors were unable to make the scheduled meeting taking place the following Monday (7th April 2014) plus a planning application needed discussion before a comments deadline. Parish Chair, Andrew Knowles also explained that the proposed village traffic calming project was on the agenda so that villagers comments could be heard and the project discussed

All six Parish Councillors were present, plus there were 27 members of the public. Apologies had been received by Wiltshire Councillor James Sheppard, who was attending a Marlborough Area Board meeting that same evening

There were no declarations of interest

The approval of the draft Minutes from the last meeting of 24th February 2014 was deferred to the next meeting

The meeting was then suspended for the Public Question Time. Parish Chair, Andrew Knowles explained that the public would be allowed to make comments during the planning application and traffic calming agenda items and so welcomed questions on any other matters. Items raised included problems exiting the top of Manor Lane on to Aldbourne Road with both poor visibility and vehicles parked near the junction on Aldbourne Road with suggestions such as seeing if a roadside mirror could be located opposite the junction, the bad mains water leak with water pouring down from the top of Manor Lane, and the recommended use of the new 'MyWiltshire' mobile phone app

Correspondence - none had been received other than that relating to the two main agenda items

Planning - the planning application 14/02827/TCA for the crowning of an Ash Tree on the Red Lion pub grounds was discussed. The applicant at Beech Terrace, Downsmead was keen to have large branches that overhang his garden cut back. The Red Lion pub also have a separate planning application to have all the trees in their rear garden area cut down, but that is being discussed at a separate Parish Council meeting. There are overhead electricity cables running through the tree branches and so Southern Electric were also involved. After a long discussion it was agreed to accept the crowning application subject to a tree expert being consulted to check the impact on the tree of the work

Items for consideration - the Traffic Calming Working Group (TCWG) gave an update on the proposed physical traffic calming project near the playground area of Ermin Street, which on the advice of Wiltshire Highways involves the installation of chicanes

A paper was included with the public agenda packs to show the history of traffic calming in the village, dating right back to the 1960s, click here to see a copy. In summary in more recent times the Baydon Village Plan 2009 highlighted speeding through the village and road safety as by far the biggest concern of the residents of Baydon. The TCWG was set up to look at all aspects of road safety and over the years this has included the installation of the village entrance white side gates, improved 30mph signage, red road surface 30mph rumble strips, consultations about moving the start of the 30mph area outwards from the village perhaps to include the cricket field area, consultations about installing a mini-roundabout at the junction of Ermin Street and Aldbourne Road, the school's lead project to have the pavement, school crossing point and the junction of Aldbourne Road improved and made safer, improving the local road signs including the new playground warning signs, and the painting of white lines at the side of Ermin Street near the playground area to give passing traffic the impression that the road is narrower than it is and slow down accordingly

In February 2011 after the loss of the Wiltshire police road safety unit speed checks in the village due to government cost cuts, Baydon's Community SpeedWatch (CSW) scheme started with a group of local volunteers being trained up by the police. Over the following two years the CSW team undertook nearly 100 one-hour speed check sessions in the village so averaging about one a week for the two years covering all times of day and days of the week. During this time CSW checks were made along various sections of Ermin Street and in Aldbourne Road, by far the worst location was the stretch of Ermin Street from the start of the village by Manor Lane up to the Ermin Close junction with some 40+ speeders recorded in a typical one-hour session usually in speeds of 40's and 50's mph, sometimes in 60's mph with a few in the 70's with the highest ever recorded at 75 mph passed the playground area travelling east passed the school and out of the village towards Newbury and the second highest recorded speed being 71 mph again passed the playground area with the vehicle travelling in the opposite direction in to the village and towards Swindon

The Parish Council then explained that the proposed physical traffic calming chicanes had been designed by experts at Wiltshire Highways based on a thorough review of all the facts and site visits to Baydon. No alternatives were available and so if the project was rejected then the hard fought local government funding towards the project in the region of £24,000 would be lost. Parish Chair, Andrew Knowles did explain that the project design plans were only about 90% complete and so the final layout design was still awaited

The public in attendance were then invited to raise any queries and concerns that they had in an orderly manner. A lengthy and at times argumentative debate then followed with two main concerns being raised these being in respect to (1) the related possible two weeks road closure of that section of Ermin Street whilst the chicanes are installed and (2) the location of the first chicane as you enter the village from the east / Newbury direction with it being located just after the left turn to Manor Lane so may potentially result in vehicles approaching traffic queuing at that chicane to turn left and drive through the village up Manor Lane towards Aldbourne Road and also the possibility of its location making local traffic wanting to turn left out of Manor Lane and up Ermin Street needing to negotiate a difficult manoeuvre

Concerns were raised that traffic would use both Manor Lane and Finches Lane as rat runs to get through Baydon whilst that section of Ermin Street was closed. There would be no option but for the road to be closed for up to two weeks during the building work to ensure the health and safety of the work men. Parish Chair, Andrew Knowles explained that until the final road closure plans were available it was not possible to determine exactly where any barrier across the closed road would be and so if through traffic would even be able to get to the start of Manor Lane or Finches Lane, but that he would feed these comments back to Wiltshire Highways. Both Debbie Moxon (Baydon Stores) and Mark Farrell (Red Lion) raised concerns that this would serious affect their businesses due to the reduction in passing traffic during the two weeks road closure and asked if Wiltshire Council would be looking to provide any compensation. Peter Chambers (Baydon school headmaster) said that he was concerned regarding safety issues to the children during the road works, and that a high proportion of the pupils came from Lambourn and other local Berkshire villages who would have a long diversion to get to and from the school each day during the road closure.  Parish Chair, Andrew Knowles could not comment on the possible use of Finches Lane until the final road closure details were available so said that in the circumstances parents will need to be prepared for a longer journey to school, plus the majority of the work could even end up taking place during the school holiday. A concern was raised regarding the access to the village by any emergency vehicles during the closure. It was though that the majority of emergency vehicles would actually be approaching from the opposite direction (eg Swindon, Marlborough, etc). PCSO Jonathan Mills was at the meeting and asked to comment, he explained that the road closure would be known to all emergency services and that any attendance to Baydon during that time would be allocated accordingly

A number of residents mentioned concerns regarding the location of the first chicane as you enter the village from the east / Newbury direction as it was just after the Manor Lane junction and so approaching vehicles would see a queue of traffic ahead of them and decide to turn left down Manor Lane and drive up to Aldbourne Road. The Parish Councillors explained that this concern had already been made to Wiltshire Highways and that the situation was going to be carefully monitored with a metrocount (the twin black strips across the road that measure vehicle number, direction and speed) taking place to see any new pattern of traffic. If Manor Lane was seen to be used as a rat run to avoid the chicanes then such remedies as the introduction of new traffic calming measures at the start of Manor Lane could be explored

Concern was raised regarding the remaining available width of Ermin Street and that is was not sufficient for say a combine harvester to pass through. It was agreed to pass this concern back to Wiltshire Highways

After a lengthy debate Parish Chair, Andrew Knowles explained that all the meetings comments and concerns would be passed back to Wiltshire Highways. He would also chase them up to obtain a final copy of the design plan and exact details of the proposed road closure. All updates would be posted up on the Parish noticeboard outside the shop (Mark Austen has since asked that all details could be passed to him so that they can all be posted up and available on the Baydon website)

Finance – there had been three recent payments, being to Southern Electric, Thames Water and the HMRC (Parish Clerk’s PAYE and National Insurance) which were all approved

Points for next meeting –  the next meeting takes place in just a weeks time. These had already been listed from the previous 24th February 2014 meeting draft Minutes but the problem of dog fouling also needs to be discussed

The meeting was then formally closed at 9.31pm

By Mark Austen

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