Worcestershire County Council Officers met with traders, district and town councillors, even though they were not in a formal consultation process as they recognised the strength of feeling being expressed by traders and their concerns with the concepts being discussed for improvements to Newtown Road.
Traders made it very clear that rather than less parking they would like more. They also stressed that as traffic speeds were for the most part low on the road there wasn’t any need for crossing points on the road, especially towards Link Top. Officers agreed that average speeds recorded on Newtown Road were low - between 22-24 miles per hour.
Traders stressed that it was not appropriate to compare their customers shopping with them to a retail park experience – a comparison suggested by the officers. They stated that the retail park was a destination shopping experience where people went to browse and were happy to park someway off some of the shops. For them their customers were ‘shop specific’ – simply wanting to pop into one of the shops and not necessarily visiting the other shops on the street.
They also emphasised just how difficult trading had been for everyone over recent months and the uncertainty resulting from the concept proposals for additional crossing points along the road, together with the possibility of losing car parking spaces would make it harder for them, or ‘just mess it up’ as one trader put it. They pleaded with officers to leave the road as it is now and leave their concepts for the crossing points at that - concepts. If not the danger was that this historic shopping area which had been a part of the community for many years could be lost completely.
Whilst traders were not interested in any proposed crossing points for Newtown Road there was considerable interest in improved lighting on the road, especially in view of some recent vandalism to some local premises.
The officers present outlined the process moving forward. The Sustainable Transport Team would be bringing forward more formally a set of proposals by early next year taking into account the findings regarding traffic and pedestrian movements on the road. These proposals would then be opened up for consultation. Following consultations with the public and traders, recommendations would be made by the officers which would come to the County Councillor for agreement or otherwise.
If the County Councillor was not in agreement with a recommendation then it would go to the Cabinet Member, Cllr Derek Prodger and a senior officer for their decision. Following this process the Traffic Management team would look at the recommendations made by sustainable transport and consider whether there were any issues that they should bring forward as part of a separate process.
With regards to previous comments made by traders for the road calming measures the officers said that they would not get agreement to traffic calming or further speed restrictions on a B road, but additional signage could be looked at. As the key area of concern with regards to speed was the section of road around St Joseph’s Primary it was felt that given the path was narrow there this might be a reason why a crossing would not be possible.
The officers reminded traders that the North Site developer had already agreed to some schemes which they would be undertaking – including dual traffic lanes up to the traffic lights at Link Top and having made a contribution to the cost of the North Hill Court parking area indefinitely. These provisions had been agreed under s.278. The S. 106 agreement specifically covered traffic management and lighting.
With regards to the issues which officers could take into account in making their decisions, their main priority was to look at the users of the road, however, issues around trade and the implications on traders of any such decisions would help with the final decision.
Traders and all present were grateful to the officers for making time available in the evening and for considering their concerns.
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