Notes of a meeting with County Council Highways Department
on Wednesday March 10th 2010.
Present: Charles Soutar and Nick Dawson (Highways) Richard Jenkins & Ken Lancaster (Residents Association)
- Both the County and Borough Councils are anticipating population growth for Stafford Borough in the foreseeable future and are planning accordingly.
- The planning processes for the County in relation to road building and the Borough in relation to house building are out of synch but there is an assumption of further housing development on Castlefields (the Borough’s plans are due to be published later this year).
- The approximate time scale for the road is :-
Consultation report and options to Cabinet by May
Proposals in to public domain by end of May
Formal bid to Government for cash thereafter
Decision mid 2011
Further surveys etc. through to late 2012
Construction between 2014 and 2016
- Any road construction would be carried out in consultation with the community over noise abatement measures etc. There’s a potential role for the Residents Association.
- It is accepted that the road will not, of itself, solve the traffic problems and a major reconfiguration of the junction with the A34 by Halfords would be necessary and, even then, there would still be traffic congestion at peak times.
- Part of the scheme would be to improve walking and cycling routes around Castlefields but there are plans anyway for an improvement to the walking route from Castlefields into Castletown.
- If the road is not built, the housing development may well still take place and a more limited access from Castlefields to the Doxey Road would probably result.
- Discussions over town centre traffic management identified that concerns over the proliferation of traffic lights, light-controlled pedestrian crossings and lights at roundabouts are well founded and there is ongoing review of their necessity. The possibility of part-time lights and, for example, the removal of some pedestrian crossings or their replacement by zebra crossings is being considered.
- The provision of footbridges across the road outside the station and Sainsbury’s is not practicable, but there is a desire to remove as much traffic as possible from Chell Road and provide an improved location for buses. A bus station is seen as desirable but Park and ride is not as a high percentage of town centre traffic is from within the town.