Holmewood Neighbourhood Association

Options for consideration

Holmewood Neighbourhood Association
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HOME ZONE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

 

Options for consideration

The options here have been set out to help identify the most popular and appropriate combination of measures to improve Holmewood Neighbourhood.  There follows a summary of valuable information to assist you in creating a fully supported vision for Holmewood neighbourhood. 

To aid communication, please refer to the differing areas as follows whilst considering the main topics :

 

(1) STREETS

 

           Maplestead Road 1(MR1)

           Holmewood Gardens 1(HG1)

           Holmewood Gardens 2(HG2)

           Holmewood Gardens 3(HG3)

           Holmewood Road 1(HR1)

           Holmewood Road 2(HR2)

           Cotherstone Road 1(CR1)

 

(2) GREEN :

 

           Dog Area

           Link Area

           Informal ball pitch

           Playground

 

Please let us have your views on the following possible future ‘HOLMEWOOD HOME ZONE TOPICS’? 

Do you have any specific locations in mind (Please describe where or indicate on drawings)?

 

 

1.         ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS

 

MVA survey reveals over 50 % of general satisfaction with the environment, intimate scale and character.  The design of any new features will aim to enhance the character or appearance of the area, including such things as tree planting, landscaping, and street furnishing schemes, including floodlighting of buildings where appropriate; and the reduction of the ill effects of traffic and parked vehicles.  The environment is to be visually coherent and interesting, human in scale and responsive to the needs of local people. This includes the pedestrian environment, including street furniture.

 

1.1       Street/park comforts

 

           If further street furniture is required, which type and location do you identify as most suitable?

 

            The Questionnaire revealed particular wishes for :

 

           More benches to be located

           Drinking fountain to be located

           Pond with solar fountain and frogs

 

1.2       Greenery

 

The MVA questionnaire survey revealed the following :

           Residents (66%) satisfied with presence of greenery

 

           Residents (26%) suggest more trees and shrubbery

 

           Residents (10%) suggest improved maintenance of  park facility

 

Residents have particular wishes for :

 

           More flowers, shrubs and trees to be located at narrow ends, at Brixton Hill entry (gateway) treatment and at other locations

 

           Wild garden on the green

 

           If further greenery is required, which type and location (on street and in the Green) do you identify as most suitable?

 

1.3       Dogs

 

           If the dog area is to be changed, which items/actions would you like to add/take and where/when?

 

           A resident suggested a path through the dog area.  Would you like a linear path or loop, possibly connecting the seats? 

 

           Do dog owners make enough use of the dog bins provided?

 

           Another resident called for more shrubs and bushes?

 

1.4       Lighting

 

The provision of street lighting in home zones on columns 3.5 m high at an average spacing of 25 m has been found to adequately satisfy this requirement.

(Source : The Royal Dutch Touring Club)

 

           If further lighting is required, which type and locations do you identify as most suitable?

 

The MVA survey reveals street lighting is a problem area, esp. for safety reasons.  Residents (18%) suggest better lighting in street and on green is regarded as the fourth most important improvement.

 

1.5       Street cleaning and rubbish clearance

 

The MVA questionnaire survey reveals 69 % of residents are satisfied with rubbish clearance.  On the other hand, one of the three worst 3 things about the environment is identified as being rubbish by 19% of residents.  More bins and street cleaning  is third (19%) on the list of most popular environmental improvements.

 

           If further bins are required, which areas would you identify as most suitable?

 

2.         HOLMEWOOD’S CHILDREN

 

2.1       Children’s play

 

The MVA survey indicates that children most favourite improvement is a better play area. This was voted by 8 % of the residents.  The play area on the green is the most popular place for children to play, and most requested are  improvements to be made to this.  The Planet Earth workshops with children also revealed that next to the playground, the earth mound and an area called ‘Jungle’ (to the SW corner of the Green) are most popular. 

 

‘Parking areas can be designed such that they can be used as play areas during the day, for instance, through the careful use of planting.’ (Source : The Royal Dutch Touring Club)

 

2.2       Safer routes to school

 

The following questions are also geared towards the local school’s management, esp. Christchurch school :

 

           Is information provided to the schools on the effects of school gate parking and congestion, pollution levels in the school environment and parental or community responses?

 

           Would you like to reduce the ill effects of traffic fumes on children?

 

           Do the local schools provide in-school facilities for pedestrians and cyclists (e.g. secure storage facilities for bicycles, bags and protective clothing)?

 

           Are sufficient traffic calming measures provided?

 

           What do think about limited speed zones in the schools’ vicinity?

 

           Are adequate dedicated school buses or children’s bus passes provided?

 

           Are parents involved with children going to local schools?

           What do you think should be done to cut car use for school journeys and for other journeys?

 

           Would footpath widenings and a speed table at the busy T-junction near Christchurch school be acceptable to improve visibility for crossing pedestrians by preventing obstructive, indiscriminate parking at the junction (envisaged cost £5500.oo-6500.00)?

 

           In case illegal parking on mandatory zig zag is likely to occur or is occurring, what would you think about introducing a plug’ No Entry’ at the secondary T-junction; or at the new pinch point, thus allowing a turning point at the school entry itself, if agreeable. 

 

           What about encouraging drivers to ‘park and walk’ : ie, park away from the school gate and walk their children the rest of the way? Or just providing a drop off point and closing Cotherstone Road from the secondary T-junction onwards?  Are there any locations, esp. near Christchurch School/Church where you think a drop-off point may be appropriate?

 

           What about footprints to guide the children along the preferred safe walking routes?

 

           Is there a sharing scheme for school commuters?

 

           What do you think of the idea of children designing a sign board at road entries treatments?  This has successfully been implemented at other schemes.

 

           Some children thought traffic calming and pedestrian/zebra crossings are a good idea? What do you think?

 

Part of the outcome of the Planet Earth School’s Programme indicated most children are taken to school by cars.  This may be due to a lack of safe walking routes to local schools.  The most popular routes were indicated on plans. There was some concern regarding undesirable consumption of alcohol/ and or other drugs on the seats provided in the link area.  It appears that a number of children and/ or adults feel unsafe passing through the link through the park due to the proximity of some drug-abusing people using the seats.  Would you prefer to have these seats repositioned elsewhere as a way of avoiding future conflict?

 

3.         COMMUNITY

 

Public meetings are identified  as a suitable forum for identifying the interests of residents (Source : The Royal Dutch Touring Club).

 

The MVA survey questionnaire explains overall residents are happy with community aspects of the Holmewood Neighbourhood.  Prostitution is one of the main 3 problems in the area.  71% of resident respondents feel safe in the area.  At night 43% said they feel safe and 39% feel unsafe.

 

‘The local crime prevention officer, fire and ambulance services should always be given the opportunity to contribute to the assessments.  Residents views will be of special importance when determining priorities for action.  Proposed solutions should be presented pictorially to give a realistic impression of the intended additions and alterations.’  (Source : D.O.T.)

 

‘The more people there are, walking and cycling, sitting and playing, the less there will be a problem with crime.  Home zones make sense from many angles : traffic safety, community safety and personal safety.’ (Source : Martin Hemenway of the North Yorkshire Police)

 

           Is there anyone interested in organising a reclaim the streets party/ car free day, for example on the ‘have your say day’?

 

           What measures would you identify as appropriate in dealing with prostitution in the neighbourhood?

 

4.         HOME ZONE

 

MVA questionnaire results state that over a third of residents said a reduction in traffic and speed of traffic would be an advantage of the home zone.  Other positive attributes were a safer environment and better sense of community.  Fewer disadvantages were suggested although more than a quarter (26%) feared parking spaces may be lost.

(See also 1. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS above and 5. TRAFFIC below.)

           

5.         TRAFFIC

 

The MVA survey explains speeding cars are found to be one of the worst 3 characteristics of the area. It also states residents general dissatisfaction with crossing roads the amount of traffic and through traffic.  Traffic calming reached the highest score in terms of improvements to the neighbourhood.

 

20 Mph traffic calmed zones don’t increase levels of street activity, but lower speeds (10mph) in home zones may do. 

The provision of adequate physical measures will reduce speeds close to 20 mph and is likely to reduce the incidence and severity of accidents.  To significantly change the function of a street, more stringent measures, such as a road closure or changing the nature of the road to reduce speeds to 10 mph or less, are needed.  Home zones may be more appropriate to change the function of a street

(Source : Urban street activity in 20 mph zones : emerging findings.  Hodgkinson and Whitehouse, Allot and Lomax 1999).

 

‘It is important to find ways of discouraging through traffic and restraining vehicle speeds whilst providing convenient vehicular routes for residents and those who provide services.  An area-wide approach is needed when determining what action to take.’ (Source : D.O.T.)

 

5.1       Cul de sac conversion (environmental road closures)

 

Speed restraints along residential roads will often cause sufficient inconvenience for drivers to ensure that non-access traffic keeps to the distributor roads.  Measures like culs de -sac and tortuous routes may be needed to exclude through traffic from the site-either altogether or in some directions only (D.O.T. Design bulletin 32). 

 

Environmental road closures should always include cycle gaps and could be designed with turning areas (Source Traffic Advisory Leaflet 1/87).  If environmental road closures are introduced, necessary vehicular journeys are possible, but shorter journeys might be quicker or more convenient by walking or cycling (Source : The Traffic Advisory Unit).

 

           If streets are chosen to be diverted and /or closed, which one(s) do you believe are most appropriate?

 

           Which access routes should be retained if desired, whilst the aim is to cut through traffic?

 

Travel time losses are likely to be one or two minutes and thus are not a consideration which should be allowed to influence the creation of ‘woonerven’ (Source : Royal Dutch touring Club ANWB, Woonerf). 

 

Roads serving between 100-300 dwellings should retain 2 points of access or the inner road layout should form a circuit (Source : D.O.T., Design bulletin 32).

 

           Would you like to try and obtain consent to test try such measures for a few days or a week to see if  residents like it or not?

 

5.2       Road function (switch to home zone 10mph)

 

           If the function of a street is to be changed significantly into a home zone, which one(s) + generate and discuss options ?

 

Shared surface/use roads can be used to create very attractive living areas, where pedestrian’s right to use the road equally with vehicular traffic is made obvious by the design, and as a result vehicles are driven at a safe, sensible speed

(Source D.O.T., Safer by Design, a guide to road safety engineering).

 

Vehicular speed in home zones is limited by chicanes, humps and short sight lines. (Mike Biddulph, Planning Lecturer at Cardiff University)

 

           Are appropriately placed traffic calming measures without diverters, environmental road closures with cycle gaps and cul de sacs sufficient to limit through traffic?

 

Streets which carry heavier loads, than just local residents are not normally appropriate.  Through traffic without a destination or origin in the home zones should be excluded.  This does not mean that it should not be impossible for through traffic to drive through, but sufficiently inconvenient so as not to be used by much other traffic than local traffic.

 

Dutch experience suggests that the limit of flow of traffic is 100 to 300 vehicles per hour during peak periods, but this is a function of both the width of the street and the distribution of traffic flow over the day (Source : The Royal Dutch Touring Club).

 

The limit of traffic flow is to be 100-200 vehicles (Source : Mike Biddulph, Planning lecturer at Cardiff university).

 

MVA recorded highest average hourly flows for all roads below 200 vehicles.

 

A home zone generally benefits from serving a limited number of dwellings.  This may imply that the roads could benefit from separating by means of street diverters or environmental road closures/cul de sacs (See 5.1 above).  This may also imply that in this case access routes such as Maplestead Road and Holmewood Road may possibly be better converted to 20mph zones, whilst Holmewood gardens could potentially be turned into a home zone (Source : The Royal Dutch Touring Club).

 

           Is one way traffic desirable?

 

It is possible to reduce through-traffic by reducing its speed.  This sometimes includes the creation of a one-way system or narrowing of the road (Source : Pieter Van Loon, Dutch design, Landscape Design journal Dec. ‘95)

 

One way traffic is neither desirable, nor necessary.  The layout and design of home zones usually provides adequate opportunities for vehicles to pass each other in opposite directions.  (Source : The Royal Dutch Touring Club)

 

The D.O.T. supports the latter view.

 

5.3       Traffic calming measures (switch to 20mph zone)

 

20 Mph zones need to be backed up with speed-reducing features such as chicanes, pinch points and raised junctions.  Evidence suggest that they can be very useful in reducing accidents and casualties (Source D.o.T. , Safer by Design, a guide to road safety engineering).

 

           If traffic calming measures are to be introduced to change the street into a 20mph zone , which one(s) + generate and discuss options ?

                        -horizontal deflections : build-outs, pinch-points, chicanes (or staggered parking on alternate sides of the road), islands and overrun areas, traffic islands, change in surfaces, environmental road closures, cul de sacs and diverters.

                        -vertical deflections : raised junctions, humps.

                        -entry treatments (See 5.7 below)

                        -signage (See 5.9 below)

 

                       How do you feel about the existing traffic calming measures? e.g. Road narrowing in Cotherstone Road, some entry treatments and build-outs, including pedestrian island refuge at junction of Holmewood Road and Holmewood Gardens?

 

5.4       Road function (no changes)

 

           If the function of one or more streets or parts thereof is not to be changed, tell us why and discuss options?

 

5.5       Parking restrictions

 

           Wherever there is an excess in the demand for parking  which cannot be met by the provision of  special parking facilities in the immediate vicinity, it is preferable not to develop a woonerf since the cars will be parked regardless of parking regulations and thus destroy many of the concepts integral to the ‘woonerf’ (Royal Dutch touring Company, Woonerf)

 

The Royal Dutch Touring Club explains :

 

‘It is essential to the basic concept of the ‘home zone’ not to permit uncontrolled parking.  The solution of only permitted parking where a parking space is indicated has been chosen.’  Parking is only permitted where a P is painted onto the street or displayed.

 

The draft Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 (P.P.G.3) suggests :

 

The needs of people should be placed before the needs of cars in residential areas, that maximum parking standards should be introduced, limiting parking to  1-1,5 spaces per dwelling and that greater attention should be paid  to urban design  qualities  that promote more activity in the public realm of housing areas.

 

MVA explains the total volume of cars remains constant at approximately 200 vehicles.  There are 199 houses, the number of households is currently unknown by Planet Earth Landscape Architects.  74% of households ow at least one car.  More than a quarter of residents feared parking spaces may be lost.

 

           Do you feel it is necessary to have parking to both sides of Holmewood gardens?  MVA found that 15% of the residents choose parking permits and controlled non resident parking as most popular improvement. 

 

           If parking restrictions are to be introduced, which one(s) + generate and discuss options?

 

           Would you be prepared to cut/ restrict parking to restrain through traffic?

 

           Would you have problems with chevron (one-way streets) or perpendicular parking if they would form part of a coherent streetscape? If so, which?

 

5.6       Road Crossings         

 

MVA survey reveals resident are generally dissatisfied with crossing points.

 

           At which prime locations would you accept a safer crossing for pedestrian and/or cyclists which would also calm traffic?

 

5.7       Entry treatments

 

The D.O.T. explains :

 

‘Entry treatments have been developed for use at side roads so that drivers leaving a major road are in no doubt that they are entering a road of different character.  The design can incorporate a wide variety of features. These include : build-outs and pinch-points, changes in surface texture or colour, vertical deflections of the carriageway, bollards and planting, tactile paving, signing, planting and/or vertical design elements (posts, pillars, walls, fences, etc.).’

 

           Please discuss different options and decide on preferred ones?

 

5.8       Cyclist facilities

 

According to John Lee, the London Cycle Network Officer, it is possible a section of the Lambeth cycle route is proposed to be implemented through the Holmewood Neighbourhood.

 

           Are cyclist facilities, such as bike storage, cycle paths and link routes to wider networks desirable/acceptable? 

 

           What do you think about a cycle route through the Green’s Link Area (See Drawing Holmewood’s Pedestrian- and Cycle route analysis)?

 

Cycle and pedestrians links are best overlooked by the front of dwellings?  However occasional short links to give pedestrians and cyclist a direct route is acceptable (Source : Essex Planning Officers Association, Essex Design Guide).

 

5.9       Home zone signage

 

Home zone gateway features are to highlight the change in road status and priority (design of sign board by children with community artist).  The amount of usually necessary signage can be reduced in areas with 20mph or home zone status. This  helps to minimise clutter.

 

5.10     Traffic management

 

           Which of the above or combination of the above measures would best suit this neighbourhood?

 

           How do you suggest police, traffic wardens & health (emergency) services contribute to the success of the scheme?

 

5.11     Materials

 

Paving with small elements works best (ie. sets, tiles and flags) (Source : The Pedestrian Association and the Walkways Service).

 

           Which materials would you find most acceptable for street resurfacing, e.g. brick or concrete pavers, sets, tiles, flags, tarmac, concrete, coloured surfaces,...?

 

6.         MANAGEMENT/ MAINTENANCE

 

           Which measures would you see as priorities and would a level of contribution/ responsibility by residents be expected to keep the place up to standard?

 

MVA explains residents are generally dissatisfied with pavement and road conditions.  Also improved maintenance of park facilities is most popular by 10 % of the residents.

 

7.         IMPLEMENTATION

 

Implementation may be spread over a number of different phases. 

 

           Please discuss what you think should happen first?

 

8.         BUDGET / SPONSORSHIP

 

The D.O.T. explains in Design Bulletin 32 : ‘Assessment of the costs and benefits of alternative design solutions will normally be needed to help set priorities for expenditure.  Costs include those of implementation, enforcement and maintenance.’

           Are there any local businesses which can provide support?

 

           Would you like to assist in fund raising?

 

Please find as follows guidance notes on costs :

 

           One traffic calming hump costs £1.500,-

           One pedestrian crossing costs £18.000,-

           One traffic calmed 20 mph-zone costs £ 80.000,-

           One safe routes to school scheme costs £100.000,-

                        (Source : Transport 2000)