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www.SortOutStarkholmesTraffic.co.uk
STARKHOLMES TRAFFIC ACTION GROUP RESIDENTS' VIEWS
(all links open in a new window and all files to be downloaded will be in PDF format. You can read this with Acrobat Reader: if not already installed in your comnputer you can get this for free by clicking here) This page is for your own views, ideas, suggestions, and reports of incidents. Please use the contact page to email anything to Steve (webmaster) or if you have files to attach, you can email direct by clicking here. There is also an online forum where you can contribute details of incidents and accidents, or suggestions for particular measures that you think may be needed for traffic calming or road safety. There is also a general discussion area. You will need to register - supply a user name and password, as well as your email address. The forum will then send you an email, and you will need to confirm your email address before being allowed into the forum. Our own road survey and recommendations.
Text of a submission to the Crown Square planning application. We refer to the submission by John Winnard. He makes it clear that the baseline traffic figures which should be used are those from BEFORE the start of the Sainsbury's development. It is clear from the August 2009 traffic survey in Starkholmes that there is a substantial discrepancy between northbound and southbound traffic volumes in Starkholmes. This can only be attributed to making Matlock bridge one-way only as a part of the new road layout. Far from pedestrianising Matlock bridge, as has been advocated by a small, unrepresentative group (the "Matlock Civic Association") and a few others, it is clear that the most useful action needed to mitigate the traffic problems in certain roads around Matlock such as Starkholmes Road is actually a full reopening of Matlock bridge to two-way traffic. This will not cause a return to the traffic volumes experienced in Crown square before the Sainsbury's development because all through traffic on the A6 will now use the new section of road and will not need to cross the bridge. However, full reopening of the bridge will maintain the numbers of people coming into Matlock town centre and will therefore be of direct benefit to businesses around Crown Square. It will, however, necessitate a re-think of the Crown Square road layout - and this might well be incompatible with the proposed plan. It is possible that traffic lights will be a much better solution, for Crown Square itself, than a roundabout, and this solution would actually allow a much simplified redevelopment plan without the need for separate sets of lights for pedestrian crossings on the adjacent roads. We therefore urge very strongly that the Crown Square plans be halted pending a complete re-think and a full study of the options - which will include two-way reopening of Matlock bridge - including the effect on traffic flows in other areas of Matlock, compared with the traffic before the start of the Sainsbury's scheme. If such a delay will cause the loss of some of the funding allocated to the scheme, so be it. The budget for the proposed application in any case seems to be excessive for what are in reality just minor cosmetic changes. S. Henley185 Starkholmes Road P. Bradley 164 Starkholmes Road Matlock 23 Dec 2009 |
