There is a history of collisons in st Gregorys Crescent, aswell as pets dying from speeding motorists.
This ePetition ran from 05/01/2022 to 05/04/2022 and has now finished.
8 people signed this ePetition.
Thank you for your petition dated 30 February 2022, containing a
petition for traffic calming measures in St Gregory's Crescent. I
am sorry to hear about the problems this is causing.
In accordance with our ‘Petition Service’ as your
letter contains less than 1,000 signatures I have investigated and
reviewed your concerns in my role as the Cabinet Member for
Highways and Transport.
Firstly, may I thank you for taking the time to raise this petition and obtain all the signatures enclosed. I appreciate the efforts you have taken to raise this issue with me, and we take every suggestion about road safety very seriously.
We receive many requests for the implementation of improvements
on the highway, all of which are reviewed and prioritised.
We use an evidence-based approach to prioritise investment in our
highway improvement projects, to achieve safer roads and streets.
Our first priority is to check if there is any pattern of personal
injury crash records for the past three years that could be
addressed by engineering methods.
Following our checks, we have established that in this location there is no such pattern; it is therefore very difficult to prioritise this site for crash remedial measures against locations across the county where a pattern of incidents is occurring. I am unable to comment on the recent incident you refer to as this occurred after our latest data cut-off period.
Implementing highway improvements at known crash hotspots remains our priority. At this stage we have no programmed works at this location, although we will of course continue to monitor the site.
However, we recognise that whilst prioritising our efforts based on known crash data is an established and sensible approach, not all problems will be highlighted using this method. We have also therefore recently established a process with local Parish & Town Councils and County Members to ensure that a community voice helps to prioritise our efforts, and in many cases, help support funding for improvements that do not achieve sufficient priority through our countywide assessments.
We have also recently developed and published a new approach to casualty reduction in Kent and this is called ‘Vision Zero’ Road Safety Strategy (see link below):
https://www.kent.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/road-safety/road-casualty-reduction-strategy.
This new approach is designed to build a more complete picture
which understands that people make mistakes and aims to ensure
these mistakes do not cause a death or a life-changing injury. This
is called the ‘Safe System Approach’ and consists of
looking at safe roads and streets, safe speed, safe behaviour, safe
vehicles and post collision response.
We are therefore reviewing how we evaluate and prioritise road
safety schemes to reflect the principles of the Vision Zero
Strategy. Once we have finished this review, we aim to publish the
way that communities and residents can report their concerns to us
and how we engage with them to deliver our new approach.
However, clearly not all issues can be solved by the County Council and by changes to the road layout.
If you believe that drivers are driving at excess speed and without due care, then this is a matter for the Police using their existing powers. Such concerns can be reported to them on their non-emergency number 101.
There are also schemes such as Speed Watch that allows the local community to record speeding vehicles on roads in their area, by using portable speed devices. The owners of vehicles seen repeatedly speeding anywhere in Kent over a 12-month period are then sent a warning letter and advice by the police. I would encourage you to contact Kent Police Speed Watch Team who can provide training on community led speed action:
Meanwhile, there are no speed limit signs within your part of Saint Gregory’s Cresc