Derek Deedman

Following a meeting on 14 January involving the Local Highway Manager, the Safety & Traffic Engineering Manager, the Chairman of the Chanctonbury County Committee and Derek Deedman, the position on the provision of a crossing has been confirmed as: - 

General

• This is a difficult site with poor visibility and limited space to do anything.   If there were an easy solution, no doubt somebody would have solved this by now. As it is, the solution that officers consider most appropriate deviates from national guidelines to some degree.  
• Pedestrians consider this a dangerous and difficult junction at present, but they are clearly taking great care in crossing because there have been very few reported accidents resulting in pedestrian casualties here.  The County Council needs to be careful that any new feature provides a safer crossing point without giving a false sense of security to pedestrians.

Options considered

• Different locations have been considered, a position just on the village side of the cross roads is the most favoured.
• It is not possible to install a refuge island because the road would need widening to accommodate it - this cannot be done without very great expenditure because of the presence of buried public utilities and the need to address poor visibility to the left (for traffic emerging from Goring Road)
• The option of a zebra crossing has been looked at very carefully. The principle concern is the lack visibility from the Goring Road side, which falls far below national guidelines.   It would be possible to install additional warning signs for drivers, but zebra crossings work by drivers seeing a pedestrian waiting, or starting, to cross. With limited visibility this is likely to be a problem.
• It may be possible to install a traffic signal controlled crossing (pelican) at this point.  To reduce the risks associated with the limited visibility it would be necessary to consider installation of traffic signal heads on both the near and far sides of the road (possibly for traffic approaching from both directions) as well as the application of high friction surfacing on the approaches. The crossing would be sited very close to the existing side roads, but the increased number of signal heads would help ensure drivers emerging from side roads could clearly see if the crossing is in use.  The existing bus stop (for trips into Steyning) would need to be relocated and a suitable replacement space found.

Funding

• Assessment of pedestrian use and passing traffic shows this to be a lower priority site than many other others in the County, therefore to proceed ‘local’ funding is the only option.
• Planning Development funds of £23,000 are available.  The balance (£22,000 against current estimates) would need to be found from adjustment of the 2009/10 highway works programme by the Chanctonbury County Local Committee (CLC) if the scheme is to proceed.

The Safety and Traffic Engineering Manager, together with the Local Highway Manager, will be attending the CLC meeting at the Penfiold Hall in Steyning at 3.30pm to enable the public to contribute to the debate on how to address the issue.