Massive Bang – part 2
Thanks go to our new councillors – what a boon it is to have two, rather than one, active councillors in Walcot. Richard Samuel has reported the accident to the relevant Council Director and Tom Davies has reported it on the Council’s own problem tracking web-site called FixMyStreet – there’s a link to it near the top right of our home page: always a good place to start if you have an issue. He’s asked for the accident to have high priority and I’m sure he will be progress-chasing it for us. You can read what he wrote here and track it too. He’s come up with some additional ideas as to causality and solving it from having a good look himself which are different to ours. That’s not a bad thing – us amateurs have no monopoly of the truth and some expertise is required to get this right.
Meanwhile, of course, we will be arranging a meeting with Joanna Wright, Joint Transport Lead in the new Cabinet of the Council not just about the massive bang but also about the Low traffic Neighbourhood LTN). She has agreed that I can quote her verbatim. Her initial response was:
Dear Jeremy
Thank you for the links. I am taking up this issue with Officers. It is not something I can solve tomorrow, it is in our manifesto and it is my intention to improve the movement of cars in the north of Bath.
Joanna
Joanna Wright
Councillor for Lambridge Ward
Joint Cabinet Member for Transport Issues
Bath and North East Somerset Council
Finally, finally. We now have the stats from 14 days of traffic measurements in May and I’ll be writing those up in support of the LTN.
Another danger point is at the bottom of Bennett’s Lane. It is difficult to see traffic coming down Snow Hill from the left. It is equally difficult for traffic coming up Snow Hill turning sharp left as they cannot see traffic coming down Bennetts Lane. This morning two cars had to take evasive action by going on the pavement to avoid a serious collision because they were both unsighted. Large mirrors would help to avoid an accident.
Thanks, Malcolm. By posting your comment here we will be constantly reminded of your observations. It also suggests that we have to define our neighbourhood very carefully to avoid showing our problems onto neighbouring areas. Tyning Lane, Snow Hill and Bennet’s Lane are extremely awkward and when waling up and down them that dreadful ‘what if?’ question crosses the mind regularly – what if a vehicle’s brakes failed or a driver’s consciousness failed?