I held my latest monthly ward surgery yesterday morning in the Parish Council offices (formerly the Resource Centre) in Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery.
At the surgery I received reports of ongoing traffic-related issues at Station Road in Blackhall Rocks - with the main concern being about the now ineffective traffic-calming measures installed years ago to address residents’ concerns about speeding vehicles, a problem exacerbated since then by a steady increase in the volume of traffic heading to and from the increasingly popular Blackhall Rocks picnic area on the beach banks.
I’ve raised residents’ concerns with the relevant sections at county council this morning, with a specific request that existing traffic control measures are either returned to their original condition or that another form of traffic-calming is installed in their place.
I’ll update on progress as soon as I receive a response from the service, but in the meantime I’ve published below the correspondence I’ve sent this morning to the service at county hall:
At a ward surgery held this morning I received further reports from residents about vehicle speed issues at Station Road in Blackhall Rocks (please see location details in the attached image).
There have been several historic reports of traffic issues at Station Road, which is the sole access route to the Blackhall Rocks picnic area on the beach banks, and as such is subject to an unusually high volume of traffic. Residents' primary concerns are about vehicles travelling at speed up and down the hill on a frequent basis, with an additional concern expressed about a couple of 'near-miss' incidents recently in which residents were almost hit by passing traffic when either pulling out of their drives into the road or when opening car doors to leave their vehicles. This is a long-running issue which has been reported to the council on a number of occasions in the past.
By way of background speed humps were installed along Station Road some time ago in response to similar concerns expressed at the time by residents reporting speeding vehicles. However, the speed humps were reduced in height a number of years ago when a royal visit posed vehicle access issues. The humps are now rendered ineffective in addressing the issues they were installed for. In addition traffic volumes have increased considerably since the humps were installed, largely down to the popularity of the picnic area with visitors to the coast.
Please record this query on the CRM system for the attention of the relevant section(s) at DCC, with a request that the speed humps on Station Road are returned to their original height and condition, or alternatively highways officers consider installing a more effective form of traffic-control.
If necessary, I would be happy to host an on-site visit where officers could meet with me and residents to see for themselves the impact of the issues raised at yesterday’s ward surgery.
