ALTON Town Council’s planning and transportation committee has given its support to a proposal by the Ackender Road Residents’ Association aimed at improving road safety and the environment.

Having gathered traffic data over many years, and more recently pedestrian footfall, the residents’ association has drawn up a proposal containing four integrated changes that residents believe would “radically improve the safety and environment” for householders and vulnerable road users.

In putting the proposal to councillors at last Wednesday’s meeting, association chairman Dr Mike Hayward pointed out that it was backed by evidence and supported by the whole resident body of the road.

Running between Butts Road to the south and Lenten Street to the north, Ackender Road comprises 180 households, including 101 flats for the elderly. Its nature has changed substantially over the last two decades with the loss of all but one of the businesses which have been replaced by a block of 14 flats and two fairly large developments of retirement housing.

In the early 1980s, a width restriction road traffic order was put in place to reduce the excessive noise and pollution from through HGV traffic, followed in the 1990s by the introduction of an access only order, when the new traffic system in the town centre and the arrival of Sainsbury’s threatened to double the traffic flow along Ackender Road as traffic used it as a north-south cut through.

While the traffic orders have been effective in preventing the predicted increase in traffic flow, residents believe other measures are now necessary to improve road safety and the environment in this residential area.

Key to the four-point proposal is the introduction of a 20mph speed limit. In welcoming the extension of the town centre 20mph limit along various roads, in particular adjoining Lenten Street, association members believe it will be “counter intuitive” that traffic entering such roads as Ackender and Westbrooke from Lenten Street will then be signed back to a 30mph limit.

In a report, presented to councillors, it was pointed out this makes little sense “when these roads are clearly even less suited to traffic travelling at 30mph than Lenten Street”.

The report continues: “We consider that, for reasons of both safety and environmental impact, it is essential that the 20mph limit should be extended to include the whole length of Ackender Road.

“With the high density of population, particularly elderly and children, the large number of pedestrians who cross the road and the sharp bend in the middle of the road, a 30mph limit is not suitable.

“It is also clear that roads such as Langham, Kingsland and Westbrooke should not be designed and signed as 30mph. In fact, it is suggested that a 20mph zone should be extended to provide blanket cover to include the current ‘access only’ road traffic order area linked to Ackender Road.

Ackender Road Residents’ Association believes a 20mph limit could be achieved “at very little cost”, simply requiring a change in signage. In addition, evidence shows that 20mph limits are largely self-enforcing and do result in a significant reduction in average speed.

The report continues: “There is now a vast body of evidence on the safety impact of reducing traffic speeds using 20mph limits. This is particularly so for the most vulnerable road users, pedestrians and cyclists, and among them especially children and the elderly.”

Combined with a 20mph limit, the residents’ association is asking for a pedestrian refuge at the junction of Ackender Road with Butts Road, a ‘keep left’ bollard at the junction with Lenten Street, and the introduction of a residents’ parking scheme.

On the pedestrian refuge at the busy junction with Butts Road, the report points out that residents’ association pedestrian counts at this point have revealed heavy pedestrian footfall, amounting to more than 131 pedestrian crossings an hour at peak times (7am to 9am and 3pm to 6pm), averaging one per minute, with observations suggesting that a large proportion of these are school children and the elderly.

“There is a need to improve safety at this crossing,” states the report, suggesting the need for a central pedestrian refuge which would enable pedestrians to cross the road in two stages and would also have the effect of slowing traffic down as it enters Ackender Road.

One of the hazards experienced at the opposite end of Ackender Road, at its junction with Lenten Street, is the speed and angle at which much of the traffic turns in and out of Ackender Road.

The residents’ association believes that a central ‘keep left’ bollard would prevent this type of driving and greatly improve the safety of the junction for cars, pedestrians and cyclists.

Councillors also heard that there was “overwhelming support” from residents to lift current parking restrictions along at least the section of Ackender Road from Butts Road to the junction with Kingsland Road, to facilitate some ‘residents only’ parking.

The report points out that there are residents at the southern end of the road, with houses fronting close to the carriageway, who do not have their own off-road parking space. The creation of a short stretch of residents only parking would help resolve their problems, while the parked vehicles would, it is suggested, provide some additional traffic calming at no extra cost.

In expressing the committee’s support for the Ackender Road proposal, and giving praise for the work undertaken by residents’ association members in producing it, Alton Town Council planning and transportation committee chairman Graham Hill pointed out that while only a consultee in this matter, the town council would pass on the residents’ association proposal to Hampshire County Council’s highways department with a recommendation that it be given “very careful consideration”.