Agenda item

Simon Cooper asked the Leader of the Council the following question:

 

Question

Following the fatal accident at my home in January and the one three years prior to that and the other five serious accidents outside my property in the last 7 years, please can the Council provide a thorough update as to the progress being made (please be very specific in your answer) and what timescales are being followed to resolve this matter, please also in your answer include the data gleaned from the speed surveys conducted in March (happy for the data to be anonymised to protect the innocent).

Minutes:

 

Question

Following the fatal accident at my home in January and the one three years prior to that and the other five serious accidents outside my property in the last 7 years, please can the Council provide a thorough update as to the progress being made (please be very specific in your answer) and what timescales are being followed to resolve this matter, please also in your answer include the data gleaned from the speed surveys conducted in March (happy for the data to be anonymised to protect the innocent).

 

Answer

The Council notes your continued interest in the progress being made with regard to traffic safety in Mortimer Road, Grazeley and I can confirm that, despite the current public health demands we are coping with, the Council has met all of the commitments made to you in the previous Executive responses and this has been directly communicated to you in email communications by Officers.

 

In particular, traffic speed surveys have been concluded at four locations, as agreed with Thames Valley Police and as advised to you by Officers at a meeting on site.  The data from these surveys have been analysed and results confirm that conditions remain much as they were prior to the fatal collision, with traffic speeds remaining broadly compliant with the speed limit.  A copy of the survey data has also been provided to you in response to a Freedom of Information request that you made and the same data has also been passed to the Police, to assist in their undertaking of traffic management and fatal collision investigations which, as you are aware, have yet to be concluded. 

 

The Council may not see the outcome of these investigations until reports are passed to the Coroner and it would be therefore inappropriate for it to take any specific action with regard to infrastructure improvement, until the outcome of any inquest is known along with any specific requirements for action that the Coroner might impose upon the Council in its role as the highways authority.

 

Notwithstanding this, you have been informed of the Council’s investigation into the potential for average speed enforcement cameras, at appropriate locations along Mortimer Road, which has now concluded and I can advise you that we will be seeking both the support of the police and the local community through a formal public consultation process, once the outcome of the Coroner’s inquest is known.

 

The Council’s programmed resurfacing work for Mortimer Road is now rescheduled to be undertaken in June, following which road markings will be reinstated and this will reinforce the traffic safety measures already in place.

 

I would take this opportunity, once again, to acknowledge your continued anxiety and extend every sympathy in respect of the current circumstances.  Members are just as keen to see the conclusion of this phase of the investigation as quickly as they are, in order that the next phase can move forward but, until that is possible, we must patiently await the police and Coroner’s reports.