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Report to BLPC from Cty Cllr Ferris Cowper - Editor (26th Nov 2012 - 17:13:45) This is County Councillor Ferris Cowper's report to Parish Council for tonight. 1. Highways a. Ongoing projects See note added below this one (editor) b. Walk to Woolmer Hill School Through Bramshott A budget now exists and engineering resources are being idedntified. c. Bypass to Conservation Area This is now to be included in the parish Plan as agreed at the previous Full Council. d. Liphook Junior School/The Avenue I have now met with the Head Teacher, a governor and a resident and as a result I am initiating a project with HCC Traffic Management. e. Footpath Quality Near Skew Bridge Initial pothole filling is complete and a date for more extensive repairs is being identified. f. Junction Gunns farm with Midhurst Road I have followed up a complaint about the safety of crossing the road here at the point where the footpath meets up with Midhurst Road. Traffic Management will visit and assess. 2. Liphook Square – Major project As you know, there is a major highway project planned for the centre of Liphook to be carried out early next year. This note has two parts; 1) my comments following a very full meeting with Mark Batcheldor, the project manager, to help me understand more about this project and 2) a suggestion about how we can best keep the community informed given the complexity of the project. Comments on the project. Its genesis is a request from B&LPC to replace the stones in the textured surfaces at either end of the traffic calmed centre of the village, loosely known as The Square. The disruption from doing so and the resources to be deployed make it sensible to carry out any other works in the immediate vicinity at the same time. As a result "civils", (which are minor works to drains, gulleys and kerbs, four pedestrian crossing points and other, similar work), are proposed to be carried out at various stages in short stretches of Midhurst Road, London Road, Headley Road, Longmoor Road, Haslemere Road and Portsmouth Road, all at The Square end of the respective roads. Also some utility boxes will be changed by the utility companies at the same time, to minimise further disruption. The resurfacing will not be the "thin" emulsion that went so badly wrong in the Autumn. This will be a much deeper layer of new road surface made possible by the longer duration road closures. A 45mm layer of bituminous material is envisaged and I am advised this will be less vulnerable to the weather problems that we had before. I have to say that after that experience I can hardly imagine that HCC Highways will make the same errors again, in the same village; it would cause such a catastrophic loss of credibility. The logic to add these "civils" to the work on the textured surfaces is twofold as I see it. 1. Following all these works the roads will be resurfaced and to do them all together offers substantial economy of scale on the use of the resurfacing equipment. 2. A practical point; the budget is there to do this work now. After May 2013 it may not. As we know, local authority budgets often suffer from the use it or lose it syndrome so this seems to me to be a practical view of the situation. It also seems to me that as a community we could ask that only The Square is done, but the professional's view is that since this project alone will be very disruptive, the incremental disruption to get work done to the other six roads is worth it. It's a judgement call and a close one at that. My view is that after I quizzed the HCC officers in my study last Monday, I am of the view that "on balance", the whole project is worth doing. I do think we need a clear view from B&LPC as well, however, simply because I see it as an "on balance" decision and other minds will be valuable. In mitigation of the disruption, the following measures are proposed by the engineers; * The work will be done with the least impact on the busy time, i.e. work will be done between 9am and 4.30pm. * The road closures will be staggered so there will always be a diversion available. In fact the biggest diversion problem by a significant distance will be diverting around the closure of The Square. I am sure B&LPC have full details of the proposed closures. I did ask why 2-way lights were impossible and the explanation is that the road width is simply insufficient. After allowing for a 2.5m vehicle, a further 1.2m safety margin and about 0.5m for cones, that is more than half of the road width. 2. Communication. Should we agree to this project then it's vital we keep our community fully informed. Whilst what follows refers to our web facilities, we need to mirror this as best we can with paper copy for those who do not use the internet. HCC will do a leaflet drop to every affected property before work starts, in addition the ideas below. I suggest we follow the methodology that I use with all of you for my newsletters and reports to Full Council. So, if HCC Highways needed to announce the proposals for the coming week, they would post it on the Parish Council website with an alert on liphook.co.uk. I notice Alan has begun inserting extracts from my newsletter into Talkback which I think is quite a good idea and that may be an idea we can borrow for this communication project. 3. Contact You can contact me at ferris.cowper@hants.gov.uk or on 01428-609858 Cllr. Ferris Cowper BRAMSHOTT AND LIPHOOK TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT 1. Skew bridge pedestrian safety - Needs thorough review. Paul J to do after Crossways Road proj. 2. Speeding and traffic volumes along Haslemere Road - We have baseline data for speeds and accidents. New measurements to be taken Oct/Nov 2012 3. School drop off parking and congestion in The Avenue - Meeting held at the School. Initial discussions with HCC Traffic Management. 4. Extend 30mph zone in B2070 Portsmouth Road - Awaiting completion of public notification. Then report to be agreed. 5. Speed monitoring in Bramshott lanes - Speed and volume measurememts completed. Initial thoughts from HCC are 30 mph for Tunbridge Lane and traffic calming "gateways". Note repeater sign issue. Currently HCC not keen for 30 mph throughout. 6. Canada Way parking problems - Parking control project to commence in 2012/13 but statutory process may take a year. 7. Station Road/Portsmouth Road roundabout - Part of Bohunt Manor development. Under way. Delays over design issues. Project is the Developer's responsibility and HCC approve. HAMPSHIRE HIGHWAYS AND OPERATION RESILIENCE 1 Review of junction Longmoor Road with "narrow drive" - Awaiting update. 2. Upper Hammer Lane Bramshott, no footpath (HH)to Wooolmer Hill School - Budget confirmed. Awaiting confirmation of resources. 3. Skew Bridge footpath condition - Second stage of project is funded. Work to commence subject to weather.

Re: Report to BLPC from Cty Cllr Ferris Cowper - Phil (26th Nov 2012 - 22:53:06) Item 6 - Canada Way traffic problem. I would probably benefit from being informed as to exactly what the 'problem' is ... and from where it originates? Many thanks,

Re: Report to BLPC from Cty Cllr Ferris Cowper - Katy (27th Nov 2012 - 10:12:09) Hi Phil Re: Canada Way There are two main issues here I think. The first is station commuters parking the length of the village green to avoid parking charges. This means there is only one lane for cars to drive down from where the crescent of houses it to where the roundabout starts. It can be a problem if you meet a car in the middle! The second is car parking outside the Millennium Centre caused by lack of parking spaces (why they never built a car park there beggars belief). Sainsburys car park is full to capacity so anyone using the centre parks down the side of Canada Way. This again only leaves one lane available for cars travelling in both directions but you also have the added problem of cars doing a u-turn in the road by the Sainsburys garage which can result in three cars trying to use one lane - great fun! Hope this helps, Katy

Re: Report to BLPC from Cty Cllr Ferris Cowper - Phil (27th Nov 2012 - 13:21:46) hi Katy Very helpful, and thank you for that. I live further along Canada Way, and was curious as to whether it was solely the train station commuters that was seen as the problem. I have some - limited - sympathy for them trying to get to work outside the area, but agree that they are simply avoiding parking charges by parking very neatly alongside the OSU site. I have often wondered if a fire-engine could rapidly get down that road with the cars parked there. I also agree re. the Millenium Dome (as I call it). There is the car-park section in Sainsburys beside the petrol station that I always felt was appropriate for parkking to access the Dome. But, I have seen (as of Monday night) cars parked up on the footpath outside the Dome as presumably everyone wishes to park right at the door. But if initiatives are put in place, the parking will migrate to 'just another road'. Thus, Cllr Cowper et al should be encouraged to come up with an over-arching village transport plan that addresses all the issues (parking, speeding, our vairous niggles about drivers etc) rather than pick off items without full consideration and communication of hte knock-on impacts (which maybe they have done, in fairness).

Re: Report to BLPC from Cty Cllr Ferris Cowper - bdavies (27th Nov 2012 - 13:38:53) Can we add to this a review of traffic speeds along the Headley Road and Hill House HIll? Hamphire Highways have been asked to do something in this area time and again and still we see vehicles going too fast along this stretch of road. I have taken number plates of some buses and lorries that have obviously been breaking the speed limit (during school hours!) and have sent them to the Police.

Re: Report to BLPC from Cty Cllr Ferris Cowper - Andy (27th Nov 2012 - 15:23:06) Add to that removal of the National Speed Limit on the Longmoor Road. Increasing traffic for Old Thorns and the re-furbished Deers Hut surely justify making this 40mph all the way to the A3. The new housing and associated roundabout further towards Liphook surely makes this an even more vital change. I've complained about this before but it always falls on deaf ears.

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