Earlier this week I contacted the authorities to report further concerns expressed by residents about vehicles speeding along the A181/B1281 at Castle Eden, and also about dangerous driving practices on the A19 Wellfield interchange nearby.
I have received a response from the county council confirming that a speed survey is to be carried out later this month to update the findings from the last one ten years ago.
I've reproduced the council's response here in full:
Good Afternoon Councillor Crute,
Please accept my apologies for the delay in dealing with your request regarding road safety concerns on Stockton Road.
I can confirm that I have reviewed our speed and collision database. The latest speed survey which was carried out was conducted in 2012 and therefore whilst the data from this survey shows compliance with the speed limit, this would be seen as too old to be used to assess the credibility of the speed limit. As a result of this, I have arranged for a new survey to be carried out in the same location which will be compared with the old survey and ultimately used to assess the current driver compliance with the speed limit. We aim to have the data available from our survey contractor for analysis by the 30th May and therefore I will be able to provide an update following this.
With regards to the collision data along Stockton Road up to the A19 slip road, there are no major concerns other than drivers who are failing to see other road users when using the mini roundabout. With this in mind, I have highlighted the junction to our Accident Investigation and Prevention team, however, at the moment the junction would not meet their requirement of 5 collisions within 5 years and as a result of this, due to their limited resources will only be able to monitor the junction rather than conducting a full in-depth analysis.
A breakdown of the collisions can be seen below for your benefit.
|
Collision Severity |
Primary Factor |
Date |
|
Slight |
Failure to give way / Bad Judgement |
20th April 2018 |
|
Slight |
Driver attempting to conduct a u-turn from slip road |
28th March 2018 |
|
Slight |
Failure to give way |
6th November 2019 |
|
Slight |
Driver cutting across roundabout |
26th November 2021 |
Once again please accept my apologies for the delay in handling this matter and I will make sure you are provided with any appropriate updates as soon as the survey data has been provided from the contractor.
A speed survey is to be welcomed in updating traffic and speed data from the previous survey held ten years ago, however it will not serve any useful purpose in isolation. I've received a high number of reports from residents in Castle Eden about speeding vehicles and dangerous driving practices and I think it is vital that their concerns and opinions are taken into consideration if the authorities are to get a full picture of the problems along this stretch of road.
I have responded to the council to ask for residents' views to be taken into account.
I have also asked the council to confirm that the police and other agencies are fully aware of traffic problems at this location and that they are prepared to do whatever they can to address them.
I've published my response below and I will update on developments as soon as I have additional information from the authorities.
Good morning,
Thanks for the information provided and for confirming that a speed survey is to be carried out at this location. It will be interesting to see how the data compares to the most recent survey held ten years ago.
Regardless of the outcome of the survey I would also be interested in gauging the views of all residents and businesses along the B1281/A181 between the Castle Eden war memorial and the A19 Wellfield interchange. I have been contacted many times over the past few years from local residents and visitors alike reporting several incidents of speeding and dangerous driving practices at two separate locations. If the authorities are to get a complete picture of the problems in this area I think it would be helpful to contact in writing all residents and business in this part of Castle Eden to ask their views and opinions. It is quite a small section of the community and should not be restrictive in terms of time or cost. I would be grateful for your confirmation that this will be done to support and inform the findings from the speed survey.
With regard to the dangerous driving practices at the mini-roundabouts at the A19 Wellfield interchange could you confirm please that the police are aware of these reported incidents and that they too are prepared to take some form of action to prevent accidents in future. I don’t accept the metric of ‘5 accidents in 5 years’ because it takes only one accident to cause a catastrophe. In addition I don’t accept that cost should be a factor - the authorities must do whatever they can to take preventative action at both locations. The residents and businesses, along with the many visitors to our area, deserve nothing less than an absolute commitment to eliminating the risk of further accidents along this stretch of road.
