Question:
With the continuing house building programme, congestion seems to be worsening, affecting residents of the Town Wards and visitors to Wokingham Town. In the period prior to completion of both Northern and Southern Distributor roads, what peak flows and delays are anticipated, in particular on London Road, Peach Street, Denmark Street, Langborough Road, Finchampstead Road and Reading Road and what steps can the Council take to mitigate the impact of development on traffic and the potential damage to the prospects of the Regeneration programme in the period up to these 2 major road improvement projects becoming effective?
Minutes:
With the continuing house building programme, congestion seems to be worsening, affecting residents of the Town Wards and visitors to Wokingham Town. In the period prior to completion of both Northern and Southern Distributor roads, what peak flows and delays are anticipated, in particular on London Road, Peach Street, Denmark Street, Langborough Road, Finchampstead Road and Reading Road and what steps can the Council take to mitigate the impact of development on traffic and the potential damage to the prospects of the Regeneration programme in the period up to these 2 major road improvement projects becoming effective?
Answer
Whilst housing delivery is progressing in both North and South Wokingham Strategic Development Locations, housing occupations currently stand at 28% for the North Wokingham SDL and 15% for the South Wokingham SDL. The Town Centre Regeneration is in its very early stages, with some applications still awaiting submission. Therefore, at the moment there has not been significant additional pressure applied to the network as a result of those developments.
The Council owns and operates a Wokingham Strategic Transport Model (WSTM) which has been validated in accordance with the Department for Transport’s guidance. This allows us to assess aspects of the highway for chosen forecast years, which include 2019 and 2026. For each forecast year they can be reviewed against, ‘no development’ (which is base year plus growth) and ‘development with infrastructure’ (which is base year plus growth, plus planned infrastructure). This assists us in understanding what the network background growth is and what the development related growth is. It separates the two. It should be noted that the Core Strategy includes Transport Interventions (triggers linking house completions to new highways investment) assessed through the use of the WSTM, which were secured and found to be sound through an Examination in Public.
During the delivery of the Core Strategy it is inevitable that there will be some pain prior to the infrastructure gain. The Council, as you will remember, is focused on Infrastructure Delivery and is progressing on time with the current programme which, when completed, will provide network improvements and resilience. There is not always an option for an interim scheme to be considered prior to the delivery of strategic infrastructure (which ends in 2026) and where an interim scheme may be considered (i.e. the Holt Lane junction with Reading Road, Rances Lane, Binfield Road and Priest Avenue junctions with London Road) an option is not always possible or advisable due to negative associated effects. Interim junction improvements in these locations would encourage increased traffic movements in areas where this should not be encouraged (residential and school areas). It would also divert significant s106 funds from the infrastructure projects and result in abortive works (often requiring the removal of trees and landscaping), which would not be required once the strategic infrastructure is delivered.
Rather than try to provide a lengthy range of data within this fairly short response, I would be happy to discuss this and the specific areas you mention in a separate meeting and make the main points of the meeting available on the Council’s website. I would also point out that there will be a series of information sessions for ward Members and Town/Parish Councils which will take place in the autumn. These will cover traffic modelling, Civil Parking Enforcement and our emerging Highways Strategy.
Supplementary Question
My concern is, leading up to the new roads being opened, how bad the situation is going to get. I am concerned that we are seeing the difficulty of driving through the town, in encouraging visitors to the town and that we may stop people coming here. Are there any figures available for footfall, relative to Bracknell and Reading?
Supplementary Answer
I am not aware of footfall figures for Bracknell or Reading, but I am sure that Councillors Lee and Mirfin will be able to supply you with the data you are asking for.