Help! (Debate)

Thu 30 Sep 2021, 20:57

David

It not just rush hour, 

It happen a lot in the day, bus are having diffcuit 

Wed 29 Sep 2021, 17:45

David the issue is one of parking enforcement.  West Oxfordshire, unusually for a district, have taken on this responsibility, but their record in Charlbury is poor to say the least. 

Other areas with residents’ parking have had their enforcement taken on by the County Council.

Mon 27 Sep 2021, 11:26

Gary, ref your comment regarding Nine Acres/Thames Street being a choke point this 

occurs primarily in the morning and afternoon rush hours. Please bear in mind not all residents in this area have off street parking facilities and need to park somewhere. Still don's understand why there cannot be a residents permit scheme in Charlbury, previous reasons given was the scheme would need to be policed? We have single and double yellow lines in Charlbury but no traffic wardens.

PS: I have noted one benefit of parking in Nine Acres is traffic approaching this junction is forced to slow down. 

Wed 15 Sep 2021, 22:58

Are these OCC monitors referred to below able to distinguish vehicle type? I'm thinking here about the impact of the Burford hgv ban on Charlbury.

Mon 13 Sep 2021, 11:52

Thanks admins for moving this to the Debate section. 

I was only asking for some help with a survey. This was NOT intended as a thread to discuss individual opinions and problems!

Mon 13 Sep 2021, 09:25

I am not sure how Simon Hoggs can be so certain that only a few residents walk to the town centre; that seems to be a bit of an assumption. Personally I almost always walk from Ticknell Piece Road, and only use the car when I have too much to carry or, I confess, once or twice when it's been late, absolutely pouring with rain and Crawborough has turned into a muddy river.

On that point, Crawborough is probably the main walking route into town from the Ticknell Piece area not to mention the school, and it can be terrible in bad weather, it's unsafe footing for the infirm, near impossible to use for mobility scooters, has no surface water drainage and difficult to cycle on. It also pours muddy water into Pooles lane and block surface drains.

The only real alternative is via the Enstone junction, which is appallingly pedestrian unfriendly and with a very narrow and unlit pavement on just one side of the Slade. Of course Crawborough is a private road so that's an enormous barrier, but if I can think of one route which could be made friendly to cyclists, pedestrians, users of mobility scooters and is used by a lot of people, then it's that one.

So, rather than planning to close the Co-op and Community Centre car parks, which will cause major issues to some residents as well as people from surrounding hamlets and villages, then maybe look at the existing problems to pedestrian, cycling and mobility scooters. The idea of getting rid of separate pavements has some merits in some locations, but I'm not sure it changes that much in the town centre. There the roads already have high driver hazard perception, which is considered a good thing, as it slows down traffic naturally. If I recall correctly, the serious accidents that have happened in the recent past have all been on the through routes, and not in the town centre.

Mon 13 Sep 2021, 07:42 (last edited on Mon 13 Sep 2021, 13:22)

Simon Hogg's message left me with steam coming out of my ears, and I had to wait for my anger to moderate before replying. As Harriet says, is he suggesting that only *fit* people are worthy of availing themselves of the town centre? I have COPD, Mister Hogg, and in recent months have stopped going so often to the pub that I love so much because - by the time I have walked there - I am DAMNED WELL EXHAUSTED! On Saturday I *drove* to the Farmer's Market! Maybe if Mister Hogg is ever unfortunate enough to suffer from COPD, his views might change. I will stop now, in case I say something I might regret.

Mon 13 Sep 2021, 07:01

I lot of people consider moving to Charlbury, because of the station. So as and when they retire or decide to give up their car for economical or environmental reasons they can use the train to go to London, Oxford etc.  That is why a lot of people drive into the town centre to shop, a) they could be elderly or have health issues b) not everyone can carry their shopping home!

Mon 13 Sep 2021, 05:46

So Simon you'd like a town for young fit people only would you? I've already said we have problems with my mother (who has dementia) accessing the library because there is no parking and she isn't physically capable of walking from her house. Taking the library/services to the less able (not disabled in my mother's case - no blue badge, but it applies to disabled people as well) isn't the answer because it deprives them of the ability to benefit from a change of environment. Charlbury needs to consider ALL its residents not just the young and fit, because while I can tell you first hand about her experiences I know she's not the only one, just that other people feel there's no point in saying anything because the TC is only interested in the environment. While this may not be the case, it's the impression that is given. 

Sun 12 Sep 2021, 20:08

Enstone Road and The Slade  are a racetrack at very specific times from my own casual observations. I think it is through traffic from/to Witney/Banbury and to/from Witney/Chipping Norton. The key times seem to match start/finish times of work/shift patterns and that of school start and stop times eg 0700-0830 (work) 0830-0900 (school) 0900-0930 (post school to work), then around 1200-1300, then at 1530 (post school) then again at 1600-1800(post work), then again at 2115, 2215, 2315, 0015 (post shift work). Thus Tim, your point about diverting traffic away from the town centre, is perhaps valid, but is not held up by casual observation or figures. Most traffic is just passing through (how much of the horse trial traffic has stopped?), a few residents will walk to the town centre, but most will drive. Take the car park away to discourage car use and put in bike racks and electric bike charging points and pave the town centre roadways so anyone driving on them, is in effect driving on the pavement....this is an excellent traffic calming method....and results in more people walking/cycling about in non-vehicle centred town; which is not the same as vehicle free, the shift is to people away from vehicles. Things have to change, for very many reasons, primarily the environment and safety. Change is difficult, but not impossible.

Sun 12 Sep 2021, 17:58

James thanks forgot about the bells will put them on my list  🤭 😜

Sun 12 Sep 2021, 11:38

PS Tim, you should revive your petition to have the church bells silenced! ;-)

Sun 12 Sep 2021, 11:37

There are no plans at present, but we are very conscious in particular of concerns about vehicle speeds on the Slade, for example, and if we want to develop plans to improve that road, or any other road, we would need some data to back up any proposals. We have blunt, bulk quantitative data as Richard has said via the County Council and so now we want qualitative data to have a snapshot of what traffic was doing on a particular day (school day/not school day). We chose a day during the school holidays (the survey you saw being conducted in August) and a school day (next Tuesday, 14th September) to see how much difference this would make to the stats. We have teams of people recording data at six locations around town at 7–9, 12–2 and 4.30–6.30. The locations are Five Ways, Enstone crossroads, Nine Acres/Thames St corner, the station roundabout, Spendlove entrance and the Bull corner. This covers the majority of movements across and within the town. Even with over 20 volunteers for Tuesday (thank you, volunteers!), we are stretched as at busy locations, we need 3 or 4 people per shift.

Whether or not you drive out of town on Tuesdays won’t make much difference amongst the 10,000 other vehicle movements around town. We aren't aiming to have a definitive statement about traffic movements, but a snapshot of an average day.

No one wants to turn Charlbury into a ghost town, of course. I don’t suppose there is a single person in the town who would not like to see the town and its businesses thrive.

If anyone else would like to volunteer, do please contact me, we still have some shifts to fill, many thanks.

Sun 12 Sep 2021, 11:17

Rachel - this is being worked on at the moment.

The (previous) Town Council did some surveying of residents around here and a couple of other locations, and there was support for restricting parking on the bottom of Nine Acres Lane.  The (new) Town Council has looked at this and a couple of other areas in preparation for submitting a Traffic Regulation Order to Oxfordshire County Council as the statutory highways authority.

The Order costs the Town Council £5,000, so it is sensible to make a number of proposals in one Order to save us money.  I am hoping to clear up the one item of unfinished business on this front this week, though I’m waiting on OCC officers for information about how the actual Order should be submitted.
In the Community Action Plan produced some years ago now, identifying increasing town centre car parking was highlighted as a priority (with good reason).   One of the things I am conscious of is that actions have consequences, and for every opportunity there is to provide spaces for shoppers, there is another to remove current parking, to stop buses being blocked by oversized vehicles parked at pinch points and so on.  The same applies to restricting deliveries; it is all very well to ask for restrictions to take place at certain times of the day, but there then would need to be an alternative.

Of course, there are also issues with enforcement of illegal parking or the lack of it.  I notice that the County Council has taken powers in three districts and Oxford City, but not West Oxfordshire District Council whose current approach to this issue appears to help nobody here.  But that is probably another issue for another thread.

Sun 12 Sep 2021, 08:30 (last edited on Sun 12 Sep 2021, 10:29)

Thanks Richard for the response, but still just 2 days snapshot is hardly a scientific survey and one in holiday time and one not, not sure this will help, I for one as Tuesday is my day off tend to take my car out and the rest of the week my car may not move at all so are the proposed changes only going to take effect on Tuesdays and revert back to normal the rest of the week?  I look forward to hearing the " proposed changes  for a quieter, pleasanter place to live " but may I suggest one easy change and that is to ban all bin / recycling lorries or any noisy vehicles from moving in and around  the town before 8am that would be one problem solved straight away. 🚚 🚛 🚜 🕗

Sun 12 Sep 2021, 00:17

Tim: The survey isn’t about volume, it’s about flows. The volume of traffic coming through Charlbury is already public knowledge – Oxfordshire County Council monitors that information and reports it to the Department for Transport (it’s all online if you look for it). I’m sure that you, as someone who knows Charlbury, have seen where the permanent automatic survey boxes are – they’re dark green and they have OCC stickers on them.

But what hasn’t been recorded is where this traffic is coming from and going to. Knowing that there were 5166 motor vehicles along the Slade every day in 2019 and 3632 on Banbury Hill (and yes, those are the real figures) is one thing. But the boxes only measure how many cars are passing a particular point, not where they’re going or which route they’re taking through town.

That’s what the survey is finding out. The flows don’t particularly differ between a Tuesday and any other weekday, only the volume does. But the flows have never been researched before, and from what I’ve seen so far, I think people are going to be genuinely surprised when they see the results.

(Of course, you could pay for 20 staff to record traffic flows constantly for a few weeks, but your business rates might have to go up a bit to fund that. ;) )

Sat 11 Sep 2021, 22:41

We are looking at the Nine Acres/Thames Street Junction as this seems to be the major choke point in Charlbury.

Sat 11 Sep 2021, 20:33 (last edited on Sat 11 Sep 2021, 22:06)

Could the town council do something about thames street/ nineacress lane crossroads first car parked close to crossroads. Bus and lorry find it hard to turn

Sat 11 Sep 2021, 19:02

Well said Tim.

Sat 11 Sep 2021, 18:57

Did you not have a survey team on the crossroads outside the Rose and crown on a Tuesday a couple of weeks ago? as I can remember talking to one person and mentioned that Tuesday is one of the quietest days in Charlbury and they would be better trying another day, also if the council is proposing any changes to the road system  surely there should be a decent amount of time for a survey say over a few weeks of constant traffic monitoring not just the odd day here and there as that can never give a true reading into how much traffic comes through the town, also remember if we don't have traffic coming into the town then we will end up with a ghost town, you have to be careful for what you wish for as you can't have it both ways!

Sat 11 Sep 2021, 16:51

Charlbury Town Council is considering whether changes to the local road network would make our town a quieter, pleasanter place to live and visit. Before we propose any changes, we need a snapshot of how drivers are using the town – where they are driving to/from, and when. So we are conducting a traffic survey. We have chosen three times of day during the school holidays (we did a survey in August) and a school day (next Tuesday, 14th September).

We will have teams of people recording data at six locations around town at 7–9 am, 12–2 pm and 4.30–6.30 pm. The locations are Five Ways, Enstone crossroads, Nine Acres/Thames St corner, the station roundabout, Spendlove entrance and the Bull corner.

We have an amazing 19 volunteers so far but we desperately need a few more so we have enough for each junction – the busiest junctions need four volunteers to comfortably collect the data.

For more info about what’s involved, please visit https://www.charlburytowncouncil.co.uk/journeys-working-group/.

So, dear, kind people of Charlbury, could you help us record vehicle movements at 7–9 am, 12–2 pm or 4.30–6.30 pm next Tuesday, 14th September? Please contact Cllr James Styring via this site or on 07792 375423. Thank you.