Sunday 25 February 2007

Zebra Crossing- Rushmere Road

Much of local politics is about getting things done for local people. For a number of months myself and the Labour councillor for St Johns ward- Neill Macdonald have been working with local residents to try and get a zebra crossing placed on two busy roads in Ipswich.
The crossings would be close to Barclay's Bank on both Rushmere Road and Woodbridge Road. A crossing like this has been promised for a number of years and it looked like it would go ahead in 2006. But due to the Tory run County Council suddenly asking for an extra £16,000 the Tory run Borough Council decided to remove the Livability Fund contribution to the crossing.
Most amazingly, two of the Tories who voted to remove this contribution are Judy Terry who represents Rushmere and John Carnall who represents St Johns.
It also seems strange that two councils, both run by the Conservatives can't seem to work together- if anything they seem determined not to agree on anything as shown again recently with the County's proposed plans for a new Fire Station.
Back to the Zebra Crossing, thanks to a residents petition and pressure from myself and Neill (with support from our local MP- Chris Mole) it has been placed on the list of planned works for 2007/08. we should get a clearer idea in April if the work is to go ahead..
What was so great about these crossings is that they would have helped so many of the community, from parents and children crossing these busy roads before and after school- the crossing is close to St Johns, Sidegate and St Marys Primary schools and is also used by pupils of Northgate, Copleston and St Albans as well as a number of playschools. It also helps keep the local shops in Woodbridge Road in use with many members of the community needing to cross these roads to get to these much used shops, including a number of our senior citizens who live in Morecombe Court on Roundwood Road.
I am determined to keep working on this campaign and hope we get the desired outcome in April.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a resident of Roundwood Road and I am slightly concerned about two of your proposals. The first is the zebra crossing. I am unsure as to where this would go, but I am certainly aware that because of the complexity of the road layout at the end of Roundwood road and the poor visibility it is no guarantee that a zebra crossing would make things any safer for pedestrians - and in fact may make the crossing even more dangerous for drivers - as there is yet another thing to give way to. Drivers require as few distractions as possible at any junction. This would add more.

The other proposal is the traffic calming measures for Roundwood Road. I have lived here for 4 years and, in that time, have never had any cause for concern about speeding traffic. In fact, due to the narrow nature of the road, coupled with the large number of parked cars, it is very rare to see anyone travelling faster than 20mph anyway. The only danger to pedestrians and road users on this road is caused by the huge numbers of parents driving on it in the morning school run - when they have little on their minds other than doing a drop-off and getting to work.

I'm not sure what form these measures would take, the road need not be narrowed any further (the parked cars achieve this) and in my experience speed bumps do help to reduce speed (something not required on this road), but also help damage cars - there are some designs of speed bump that help reduce speed without such damage, but they seem few and far between.

Alasdair Ross said...

Thank you for those points- it is parents who atre concerned about the sppeds of cars- especially during the school run.
On the zebra crossing- it is a difficult junction but as children and parents frpm 5 schools have to cross the road and as well as amny senior citizens needing to cross to get to the shops, I feel a zebra crossing is needed. Thank you again for the interest you have taken.
You can contact me via e mail if you wish to discuss any other matter- alasdairross@hotmail.com