Officers from Highways England will attend the meeting to respond to questions from councillors and the community concerning matters relating to this route. Principally that of congestion and traffic flow into Salisbury, including how this may be impacted upon in times of flooding.
Minutes:
RichardOrmerod and Rachel Sandy from Highways England were in attendance to present information concerning the A36, Southampton Road in Salisbury.
Part of their remit was to look after the traffic operational side of things in the south west road network, as well as an improvement and consultative role for the network near the roadwork.
In December 2014 there had been a series of announcements about the A303 at Stonehenge and other areas. That announcement was the first road investment strategy that the UK Government had had. The Road Investment Strategy was a requirement of the Infrastructure Act 2013.
The Government and Highways England were now required to produce these strategies every 5 years. This enabled longer term funding rather than asking for funds every year.
Work was currently underway on the second Road Investment Strategy which would run for 2020 – 2025.
Route strategies were primarily there to advise the Secretary of State of Transport of what he might like to put in the Strategy. They were a product of engagement between Highways England and their partners, such as Wiltshire Council.
Work was in progress to produce new route strategies for the A36 and the A303. The deadline for Route Strategies for whole country to be produced was 31 March 2017. Stakeholders had been asked to feed in their representations into a consultation. Substantial representation had been received from Wiltshire Council and Swindon Council. Work was still in process.
Rachel’s local work included providing input on planning applications and performance issues for the Salisbury area.
She was due to start work to commission a study to look at Southampton road. This was designed to identify, develop and test some possible options available.
Salisbury was a challenging area, with a trunk road through the city, which was quite constrained. Strategic traffic came through from the south to west country.
The constraints of the road were a big consideration, so options were limited for what could be taken forward along the Southampton road.
The following questions and comments were taken:
· The A36 slip road which comes off to Waitrose had lots of potholes, however there had been much debate between Wiltshire Council (WC) and Highways England (HE), as to who owns that road. Answer: At the moment, the A303 carriageway was HE responsibility and the side roads were WC. That side road was considered to be WC responsibility.
Adrian Hampton – HE had been working with the WC Wilton team, but according to WC maps that slip road was HE.
HE agreed to go back and look in to the matter further, adding that there were a lot of slip roads where it needed to be work out who owns them. He agreed to feedback.
· Cllr James Robertson SCC – If there was nothing much that could be done for Southampton road then another mode should be considered. The better alternative means of transport was organised the easier it would be for the government to attain better standards for air quality.
Answer - HE would be supportive for modal shift as it would alleviate some of the traffic from the roads.
A key policy doc, states that we work to seek ways to reduce the demand of travel and manage the demand of travel (working through a hierarchal process) HE was working with WC on transport strategy.
One of the innovative aspects of the license HE had to run the roads, was that they were able to contribute to fund transport networks if they improved the running of the networks.
· Cllr Margaret Willmott SCC – some years ago the A36 was in the process of being de-trunked. Now given the fact that the A36 was unsuitable for de-trunking, was there any thought to this now?
Answer: The trunk road situation came about under a Labour government, from a policy which distinguished between roads, however that policy has now gone and now the A36 was well and truly a trunk road.
Air quality had been raised as a high profile concern of WC and the Air Quality Group. HE had made sure that that the issue had been logged. The next step would not be known until the end of March at the earliest. The Route Strategy was an examination of the A36, A303, and A35 as a whole. Other representations been made by other stakeholders for improved north south connectivity, there were options for the A36 in play for that.
· Milford Preservation Group – Would the A36 study take into account the ever seemingly increasing amount of outlets along that road? Answer: In the more localised Southampton road study HE would look at what was expected to come forward in terms of growth. HE was consulted on planning applications.
· The retail situation would be a growing problem, the real highways problem would be to separate the retail from the other traffic. You would need to look at solutions for this. Would it be possible to cut out some junctions and bypass the trunk road?
Answer: A tidal traffic system was operated in other areas; the concept was not a new thing for HE. It could be considered when looking at the studies for the A36.
Salisbury did not have a movable system control on the traffic system, HE was working toward installing this at some junctions when the funding becomes available.
· Cllr Colin Froude SCC Transportation Committee – There were a couple of issues relating to Southampton Road, Mc Donald’s had been given permission to build, despite SCC being against it. Their traffic model was floored.
The yellow junction box on the roundabout had started to wear out, when this was reported he had been told it could not be replaced. There was a lot of local information which never gets picked up. He asked HE to please visit SCC transportation committee to speak to them.
· What grant funding could HE access for the impact of traffic on public health. Could they support grant applications for air quality work in Salisbury?
Answer: There was an environmental designated fund which allowed HE to invest in biodiversity – part of this was allocated to a series of national works, so there was that funding but it was currently all allocated to a national study programme. If there was a particular idea, by all means send it in, HE could put people in touch with the team which looked after that fund. There was no other funding available for this work.
· Would it be possible to implement a punitive toll for any vehicle above 7.5t leaving the M27 to use the A36 road?
Answer: The department of Transport would need to be asked that question.
· When you look at Southampton road, would you also look at the impact of any works on Wilton Road, as the road traffic was getting more congested each year?
Answer: The issue of air quality had been fed into the process. The A36 through Salisbury was regarded as a unit; it would look as a whole.
· There had been problems with flooding under the A36, at the Castle Road underpass, where it had flooded frequently. This came down to gulley’s not being cleaned out, could you feedback later about who owned the gulley’s in the underpass areas?
Answer: The pump was changed 18 months ago, however it got damaged so HE was looking at this again. HE was targeting some areas where there were problems and had increased the frequency of clearing the gulleys.
· There had been an issue with a tree near the church for 3 years now. Was there a plan to do anything about it?
Answer: There had been a discussion before Christmas, HE was trying to speak with the Tree Officer to get the go ahead to remove the tree, it was hoped that this would be resolved by march.
· It was felt that there was currently a maintenance issue with the area running through the city, should we be looking at a different contractor, one who would generally keep a better eye on it? The HE road was skirting the medieval heart of Salisbury, a remedy was needed to address this
Answer: The area was as an unusual situation, a new set of contracts were due in July, it was not currently known whether there was an opportunity to look at this but agreed to feedback.
SCC Clerk noted that some time ago there had been a situation where HE paid the District Council a sum of money to maintain the area.
· With planning applications for retail outlets on A36, how congested did HE think Southampton road was, as it seemed to get busier and busier and more congested all of the time. Normally HE had no comment or no objection on planning applications.
Answer: At peak times the road operated over and above capacity, which extends back to the duel carriage way. At peak times it did get busy but then there were periods of free flowing traffic. It was recognised that due to cars slowing to let vehicles in and out there was often long periods of high capacity.
In terms of retail it was very difficult, it did not increase the amount of traffic, but it did impact on the number of turning routes.
The aim of the study was that when we have applications which would impact on the network we would have the study to support any comments.
HE did look to try and apply conditions where they could, however they could be tested on any comments under appeal so they had to be careful. If we felt that something could not be robustly defend at appeal then they could not include the comment.
· Would the study look at the rat run through Millford Hill?
Answer: The study would look at College roundabout HE did not want to see a rat run anywhere. The traffic westbound on A36 was having to give way to traffic coming out of Tesco, HE was looking at options.
· Small business owners and others must waste lots of money stuck in traffic on the A36. A trunk road should flow and not give way to a retail park. Any innovation you could do to try and keep traffic moving would be beneficial.
Answer: What was very clear was that Rachel would come back when she started writing the study to look at possible options. An update would be brought back to the Board in the future.
· In the case of a really bad flood we lose the A36 and the A30 had there been any headway there?
Answer: Discussions were ongoing on what options were available to improve this. HE was at present trying to improve the drainage.