| Good evening everyone. |
| My name's Phil Sutton, and I'm chairman of the Highways Committee. |
| We've called this meeting to inform members of the public |
| about the new regulations for traffic and parking we're proposing for Granford. |
| I'll start by summarising these changes before we open the meeting to questions. |
| So, why do we need to make these changes to traffic systems in Granford? |
| Well, we're very aware that traffic is becoming an increasing problem. |
| It's been especially noticeable with the increase in heavy traffic while they've been building the new hospital. |
| But it's the overall rise in the volume of traffic of all kinds that's concerning us. |
| To date there's not been any increase in traffic accidents, |
| but that's not something we want to see happen, obviously. |
| We recently carried out a survey of local residents, |
| and their responses were interesting. |
| People were very concerned about the lack of visibility on some roads |
| due to cars parked along the sides of the roads. |
| We'd expected complaints about the congestion near the school |
| when parents are dropping off their children or picking them up, |
| but this wasn't top of the list, |
| and nor were noise and fumes from trucks and lorries, |
| though they were mentioned by some people. |
| We think these new traffic regulations would make a lot of difference. |
| But we still have a long way to go. |
| We've managed to keep our proposals within budget, just, so they can be covered by the Council. |
| But, of course, it's no good introducing new regulations |
| if we don't have a way of making sure that everyone obeys them, |
| and that's an area we're still working on with the help of representatives from the police force. |
| OK, so this slide shows a map of the central area of Granford, |
| with the High Street in the middle and School Road on the right. |
| Now, we already have a set of traffic lights in the High Street at the junction with Station Road, |
| but we're planning to have another set at the other end, at the School Road junction, |
| to regulate the flow of traffic along the High Street. |
| We've decided we definitely need a pedestrian crossing. |
| We considered putting this on School Road, just outside the school, |
| but in the end we decided that could lead to a lot of traffic congestion |
| so we decided to locate it on the High Street, crossing the road in front of the supermarket. |
| That's a very busy area, so it should help things there. |
| We're proposing some changes to parking. |
| At present, parking isn't allowed on the High Street outside the library, |
| but we're going to change that, and allow parking there, |
| but not at the other end of the High Street near School Road. |
| There'll be a new 'No Parking' sign on School Road, |
| just by the entrance to the school, forbidding parking for 25 metres. |
| This should improve visibility for drivers and pedestrians, |
| especially on the bend just to the north of the school. |
| As far as disabled drivers are concerned, |
| at present they have parking outside the supermarket, |
| but lorries also use those spaces, |
| so we've got two new disabled parking spaces on the side road up towards the bank. |
| It's not ideal, but probably better than the present arrangement. |
| We also plan to widen the pavement on School Road. |
| We think we can manage to get an extra half metre on the bend just before you get to the school, |
| on the same side of the road. |
| Finally, we've introduced new restrictions on loading and unloading for the supermarket, |
| so lorries will only be allowed to stop there before 8 am. |
| That's the supermarket on School Road - |
| we kept to the existing arrangements with the High Street supermarket. |
| OK. So that's about it... |