A report in response to a petition, submitted to the Sub-Committee on 11 September 2019, requesting the reinstatement of a pelican crossing on Wokingham Road near Palmer Park.

Further to Minute 14(b) of the previous meeting, the Executive Director for Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report in response to a petition that had requested the reinstatement of a pelican crossing on Wokingham Road near Palmer Park.  Photographs of the Wokingham Road parallel crossing were attached to the report at Appendix A.

The report explained that the pelican crossing on Wokingham Road had been converted to a parallel pedestrian and cycle facility, between April and July 2019.  The Council had received 15 complaints regarding the conversion from May 2019, which had led to a desktop review of similar facilities consisting of a two-lane approach.  This also led to additional signage being installed on approach to the crossing warning drivers of the new layout.  As required by the Highways Act, a further road safety audit (Stage 3) was carried out on the crossing by independent assessors in July 2019 and had been attended by Thames Valley Police and Council officers.  The audit had been conducted over three separate dates and had consisted of daytime and night time observations, including two observations that had coincided with school pick up times.  As part of the audit, the Council had highlighted concerns that had been raised by residents, including speed of vehicles approaching the crossing, visibility of users, both on the footways and in the carriageway, and vehicles not stopping to enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross.  The road safety audit report had acknowledged that further improvements to the crossing could be made but, it did not recommend any alterations to the design of the crossing at that time.

The recommendations set out in the audit report had included the installation of tactile paving to the west of Palmer Park to alert visually impaired users of the shared path from the crossing facility to Palmer Park Avenue and the applications of anti-skid to highlight the approaching parallel crossing facility.  The report had also suggested vegetation trimming outside the park and that ongoing observations should be carried out to record user behaviour on the approach to the crossing and for those to be reported back to the auditor.  The audit report recommendations highlighted that the suggested improvements, which were outside the scope of the audit, had been implemented and, in addition, variable speed signs would be displayed on-site for two week periods to alert drivers of their speed on approach to the crossing, before they would be rotated to other sites, and redisplayed on Wokingham Road.

The report stated that as suggested by the independent road safety experts, ongoing monitoring of the crossing was taking place, including regular observations of users approaching the crossing.  These were being reported to the auditor on a termly basis.  Further changes to the crossing would be considered in response to observations recorded as part of ongoing monitoring of the crossing.

Resolved -

(1)     That the report be noted;

(2)     That the lead petitioner be informed accordingly.