Ian Parkes from Norfolk County Council will be attending the meeting and will provide a short update followed by a question and answer session.
Minutes:
Ian Parkes from Norfolk County Council was present at the meeting and provided information on previous work and current issues in King’s Lynn. He explained that various surveys and models had been carried out as part of the King’s Lynn Area Transport Study (KLATS) to determine the impact of future development and growth on the road infrastructure. Key ideas and measures from KLATS included:
- Gyratory of King’s Lynn
- Parking
- Sand line Corridor – using the quarry Railway line to support public transport was something that could be looked at in the future.
- Hospital Access – some improvements had been made to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital roundabout and onsite parking.
- South East Hardwick – this would be a key growth area and included the West Winch relief road.
- A149
- Cycle ways
The Panel was informed that issues were categorised into strategic, operational and tactical issues. He explained that strategic issues included the redevelopment of the Riverfront area, Boal Quay car park and the Hardings Way bus route. It was likely that issues would arise and need consideration as the Riverfront Masterplan was taken forward. Car parking was also a strategic issue and would need to be looked at alongside the growth of the town.
Operational issues included minor changes to the operation of the road network to make improvements, for example lane re-marking of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital roundabout, changes to the synchronisation of traffic lights and trials to turn off sets of traffic lights to try and improve the flow of traffic.
Ian Parkes explained that the King’s Lynn traffic light controllers were up to date and used the latest technology. Traffic lights adjusted themselves automatically, however if there was a major issue it could be manually overridden remotely. The County Hall highways control room was manned from 7.30am to 9.30am Monday to Friday. The Business Manager explained that there was a need for more joined up working between the Police, the Borough Council and Norfolk County Council and discussions were ongoing on how all partners could work together to respond to incidents and issues in the town centre.
The Chairman thanked Ian Parkes and the Business Manager for their presentation and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.
Councillor Bambridge addressed the Panel under Standing Order 34. She felt that Railway Road was dangerous and it was getting worse. She requested that traffic calming measures be looked at in this area. She also felt that the Friars area and Valingers Road was busy, especially around school drop off times and one option could be to make the road one way. She explained that parking had a knock on effect on the traffic flow, especially now that the adjacent areas were resident parking only, meaning that other cars were parking elsewhere in the area. Councillor Bambridge also commented that there were a lot of heavy vehicles and Lorries using the town centre and asked that the weight restrictions be enforced from the Southgates roundabout. She also commented that she was aware that some bus companies dropped off outside of the Hospital as they would often get caught in too much traffic if they went into the Hospital grounds.
Councillor Kunes felt that there were still problems at the Hospital relating to traffic congestion. Comments were also made that people parked on the surrounding streets which caused issues for residents.
Councillor Kunes asked if there were any plans to encourage use of the multi storey car park. The Business Manager explained that the multi storey car park was a short term car park and was well used, especially on Saturdays and in the lead up to Christmas. He explained that if the car park was converted to a long term car park it would be full most of the time. However the short term provision was well used by people visiting St James Pool or for short trips into town.
Councillor Howland asked if the Police were allowed to control the lights and manage traffic. The Business Manager explained that discussions were ongoing to see if it would be possible for the Civil Enforcement Officers to gain the necessary qualifications to be able to direct traffic, especially during short-term issues that occurred on the network.
The Leader of the Council, Councillor Long asked if consideration had been given to allowing the Borough Council’s CCTV suite access to the traffic management programme, SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique), so that they could manually control traffic lights if there was an incident outside of the time that the County traffic control room was manned. It was agreed that a discussion would take place between the Borough Council and Norfolk County Council to see if this would be feasible.
Councillor A Tyler commented that there were a lot of HGV’s around the Loke Road area and the heavy traffic movement sometimes caused damage to properties, for instance cracks to pavements or walls. The Business Manager explained that issues relating to HGV movement in the town had been raised at a recent King’s Lynn Safer Neighbourhood Action Panel meeting and was a Police issue.
Councillor A Tyler also asked if there would be the opportunity in the future to look at more pay on exit parking, so that visitors did not have to commit to a time to return to their vehicle. The Business Manager explained that the multi storey car park was a pay on exit car park. The Borough Council were also in the process of introducing an App so that users could top up their car parking via their phone without having to return to their vehicle. It was anticipated that the App would be available before the School Summer Holidays in July.
The Vice Chairman, Councillor Mrs Wright felt that there were still problems on the A149 especially over the holiday season. She also commented that the slip road onto the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was not fit for purpose and she felt it was dangerous.
In response to a question from Councillor Crofts, the LDF Manager reminded the Panel that they had received information at a previous meeting on the Infrastructure Delivery Plan for West Winch and this would look at how much development would have to take place to be able to afford the necessary infrastructure and if there was a deficit, how this would be dealt with. The Infrastructure Delivery Plan would be presented to the Panel at the appropriate time.
Councillor Mrs Collop referred to the new Lynnsport Road and raised concern that some of the cycle paths would be crossing the road and that vehicles would have to give way to cyclists. She felt that this was dangerous.
The Chairman agreed with comments made by the Leader of the Council in that discussions should take place regarding the CCTV control room and use of SCOOT. He also suggested that the Police could be encouraged to check that lorry drivers had the correct navigation systems, rather than those intended for private cars, so that they did not use weight restricted roads.
RESOLVED: Ian Parkes and the Business Manager noted the comments and issues raised by the Panel.