HOME ZONE CHALLENGE

 

Project Application Form

 

Note:    Applications must be completed electronically on this form.

Completed Applications must be received by 0900hrs Monday 3 September 2001.

                       

 

 

Name and Address of Section / Organization Making Application

 

 

 

 

“Slowdown!” (Bryanston Road Area Traffic Reduction Campaign)

 

P.O. Box 56

Liverpool L17 7JN

 

(www.slowdown.org.uk)

 

 

 

Date of Application

 

2 September 2001

 

 

 

Contact Officer

 

John Coyne

 

Telephone Number

 

0151 727 7779

 

E-Mail Address

 

coyne@village.u-net.com

 

 

 

Proposed Home Zone Area (specify street names)*

 

Colebrooke Road, L17

Buckland Street

Lambton Road

Blythswood Street

Sandhurst Street

Errol Street

Rosslyn Street

Alwyn Street

Allington Street

Belgrave Road

Bryanston Road (as far as Chetwynd Street)

(possibly to include Chetwynd Street)

 

 

 

 

Description of Project 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The proposal consists of a Home Zone in the streets connected to Bryanston Road, together with related traffic management measures consistent with a Safer Routes to School programme for St Michael-in-the-Hamlet.

 

The bid for Home Zone Challenge money works out at about £500 per dwelling.

 

The preconditions for a successful Home Zone involve effective restraints on traffic, however a Home Zone is more than just a reduction in traffic danger.  This proposal also considers

·    Play development

·    Enhancement of the streetscape with trees and community gardens

·    Promotion of benign forms of transport – walking, cycling, public transport

·    Development of provision for cycling

·    Moderating the demand for car parking

 

It would be all too easy to conclude that there is no solution to the problem of accommodating

  1. High car ownership with over-saturated car parking
  2. Traditional terraced housing with nowhere but the street for children to play close enough for parents’ informal supervision and
  3. Children’s right to play in safety

 

Indeed, in the past it has seemed the only solutions were:

  • Keep your children off the streets
  • Move to a house with a garden
  • Urban decline will eventually lower car ownership in your area as terraced housing becomes progressively unpopular

 

This proposal argues that we can do better than that.  The problem is very difficult – and can only be solved by radical thinking such as Home Zones.  It involves more innovative and, frankly, speculative content than most highway engineers may be comfortable with.  However, the Home Zone Challenge is exactly the right context for such “out-of-the-box” thinking.

 

Conventional traffic calming will not do the job.  Measures such as humps have a design speed of 20 mph and produce an 85th percentile speed of about 26mph.  With a double-parked narrow “speed strip” on a terraced street the safe stopping distance would be three metres rather than the 12 metres needed by a car traveling at 20mph.

 

However, the prize of success is highly attractive.  It could lead to a reaffirmation that the terraced housing that forms more than 50% of Liverpool’s housing stock is, after all, suitable for middle class families to bring up their children.

 

Solutions discovered in the context of this Home Zone programme could be applied in many similar neighbourhoods across northern England.

 

 

This proposal will also test political decision makers.  It requires a quick footed decision on selecting St Michaels for inclusion in the first round of Safer Routes to School / School Travel Plans.  But there are very good reasons to support that decision:

·        A successful community-led Walking Bus and, additionally, sustained informal walking to school

·        Support from school governors and head teachers

·        Parents’ and governors’ long-standing frustration with the inability to act effectively against delinquent driving and parking behaviour close to the school gates

·        The planned amalgamation in 2003 of the community Infant and Junior schools at St Michaels will require decisions on locating car parking and entrances and, with a new primary school designate head teacher in post, planning and preparation for 2003 can begin now.

 

 

TRAFFIC FLOW

 

We have considered the traffic flow within the area accessible by car from entrances between Tramway Road and Colebrooke Road.  Because of the railway line and the road closures at St Michaels Church Road and Dingle Vale all routes return to Aigburth Road and there is no through traffic.

 

The whole of the area is probably too large and too disparate to be considered as a single Home Zone.  Instead, we propose a Home Zone extending from Colebrooke Road to Belgrave Road (and possibly including Chetwynd Street.).  The remainder of the area should be considered for traffic calming within a Safer Routes to School plan.  In the rest of this document, we will refer to the two parts of the area as “Home Zone” and “Hamlet”, respectively.

 

We propose severing motor vehicle access (apart from emergency vehicles) between the Home Zone and the Hamlet.  Cycle and walking access will be retained and enhanced.

 

Traffic Flow in the “Hamlet”

 

Currently, Chetwynd Street carries a large and extraneous volume of traffic because it is the major entry point for traffic entering the Hamlet.  We propose to remove the option for traffic to enter the Hamlet via Chetwynd Street.  Dalmeny Street (next to Chetwynd Street) is currently a cul-de-sac.  It is a wide street and we propose opening it as an exit, with traffic light control, so that traffic can leave the Hamlet by that route.  Traffic from Chetwynd Street should be allowed to enter Dalmeny Street only.

 

Instead of using Chetwynd Street, traffic would enter the Hamlet via St Michaels Road.  A new gap would be created in Aigburth Road and traffic lights would control a right-turn into St Michaels Road.  To create smoother traffic flow and to complete the protection of Chetwynd Street, there would be a one-way loop from the mouth of St Michaels Road, along Bryanston Road and into Dalmeny Street.

 

The remaining two-way section of St Michaels Road would probably be joined to Bryanston Road using a mini-roundabout. 

 

In order to avoid possible “rat runs”, traffic would not be allowed to enter Southwood Road from Bryanston Road, nor to emerge from Southwood Road except to enter Dalmeny Street.   (It may be safer to prohibit all non-emergency motor vehicle movements at that junction.)

 

To reduce speed, traffic calming would be needed in St Michaels Road.  The carriageway would be narrowed to make school crossing safer.

 

To reduce congestion caused by school traffic, there should be a one-way restriction on Neilson Road so that traffic can only travel south from Burdett Street to Tramway Road.  Tramway Road and Burdett Street would each retain two-way working, but, in practice, they would probably act as one-way streets at peak time.  Therefore traffic calming would be needed to bring down speeds.

 

Consideration should be given to making the Hamlet a 20 mph zone.

 

The above description of traffic flow in the Hamlet is open to modification in ways which would not upset the integrity of the Home Zone.  Indeed, opinion has not yet been tested on the preparedness of drivers to give up the right to go directly from St Michaels Church Road to the school entrances.  There is a very good case for separating the school traffic from the emergent car commuter traffic – but that case has yet to be put to the relevant residents.  One modification would allow two-way traffic as far as Broadhurst Street.

 

Traffic Flow in the “Home Zone”

 

There would be no reduction in the access for emergency vehicles to all parts of the Home Zone and into the Hamlet.  To enhance emergency vehicle access the fixed bollards at Dingle Vale should be replaced with another engineering measure – e.g. rising bollards.

 

For car drivers, Bryanston Road would no longer connect the Home Zone to St Michaels Road.  In order to leave or enter the Home Zone, drivers would use the junctions on Aigburth Road.

 

Traffic would be localised further.  Currently there is a loop involving Belgrave Road, Buckland Street and Colebrooke Road.  That loop would be abolished and traffic along the length of Bryanston Road would also be restricted.  By restricting or closing junctions, we would create four sub zones within the Home Zone.  Non-emergency motor traffic would not be able to move directly between the sub zones – except by using Aigburth Road.  The sub zones would be

·    Belgrave Road and Allington Street, together with the short sections of Bryanston Road and Buckland Street which join the two streets.

·    Alwyn Street and Rosslyn Street, together with the short sections of Bryanston Road and Buckland Street which join the two streets.

·    Errol Street and Sandhurst Street, together with the short sections of Bryanston Road and Colebrooke Road which join the two streets.

·    Blythswood Street and Lambton Road, together with the short section of Bryanston Road which joins the two streets and the section of Colebrooke Road from its junction with Blythswood Street to Aigburth Road.

 

Drivers entering their sub zone from Aigburth Road would have a choice of two streets (three in sub zone 4).  Normally, they would choose the first (most south-easterly) street provided it was not obstructed, e.g. by a delivery van.  The short section of Bryanston Road would be available for a U-turn or a transfer to the alternate street.  Probably an informal one-way system would come into place so that drivers would normally emerge from Allington Street (sub zone 1), Rosslyn Street (sub zone 2), Sandhurst Street (sub zone 3) and either Lambton Road or Colebrooke Road (sub zone 4.)

 

Currently, some of these exits are made difficult by irregular parking.  We would propose three new build-outs at Allington Street, Rosslyn Street and Sandhurst Street.  (Build-outs already exist for Colebrooke Road and Lambton Road.)

 

 

MODERATING DRIVER BEHAVIOR WITHIN THE HOME ZONE

 

We would expect the Council to issue a Use Order and a Speed Order covering the Home Zone.  (The government is currently consulting on how these new powers will operate.) There should also be an Access-Only traffic regulation order on motor vehicles entering the Home Zone.  The separation of the sub zones would need traffic regulation orders covering the road junctions.

 

The Speed Order should aim at a design speed of 10mph, or perhaps less, based on the safe speed for a stopping distance of approximately three metres.  Expert opinion would be needed to assess the stopping distance available to a driver traveling between two lanes of parked vehicles when a child may emerge unexpectedly from either side.

 

The Use Order should recognise the fact that the streets have become linear car parks.  It should provide for car parking close to the (to be restricted) road junctions on Bryanston Road and relax the principle of no parking within 10 metres of a junction.  That would regularise existing parking behaviour and enable disabled parking spaces to be provided, where necessary, outside the houses on the corners at the road junctions.

 

The Use Order should recognise the role of the streets (pavement and carriageway) as play spaces and social spaces.

 

A gateway treatment at each entry to the Home Zone would remind drivers that they are entering a Home Zone and normal vehicle rights of way are modified.

 

The different uses of the carriageway, recognised by the Use Order, will each need to be provided for.  At different times of day each use would need different priority.  Between 7 am and 9 am passage of vehicles would naturally have more priority to provide for travel to work.  In the early evening and at weekends children’s play would have a greater claim.

 

It is not clear how the right to use the carriageway for play would be asserted.  Separation of the Home Zone into sub zones should help.  Only vehicles from the same close neighbourhood should regularly use the streets.  Fast drivers would be recognised and peer pressure could apply.  The problem of occasional visiting vehicles would remain.  Normally the traffic would travel very slowly – sometimes it could not be relied on to do so.

 

Given the Speed Order, it could be held that vehicles traveling faster than the design speed should not expect to be unhindered by reasonable steps taken to assert other uses of the highway.  For example, a responsible adult should be able to take active control of a traffic cone placed to warn drivers and signify that small children were playing in the street.  If a vehicle approached within the design speed, the responsible adult should be able, safely, to remove the cone promptly and replace it after the car had passed.  A faster driver would need to stop to allow the cone to be moved safely.

 

A visual token in the carriageway would be particularly helpful to deaf children.  (We know of at least one deaf child who likes to play in the street with his peers.)  Deaf children would not hear the horn or engine noise of an impatient driver.

 

Other innovative means could be explored to constrain driver behaviour within safe limits.  New technology applications could be developed to recognise number plates of vehicles driving too fast or disregarding traffic regulation orders.  (We have contacts with suppliers of relatively low cost digital camera and related computer systems and cost estimates are included with this proposal.) Data collected could help stiffen peer group pressure or could be used to support civil action in the courts.

 

There would be a role for some conventional traffic calming measures, such as humps, within the Home Zone.  The intention would be to use these sparingly and in accordance with the wishes of residents in each street.  By themselves, humps are unlikely to bring speeds down within a design speed for a Home Zone.  There may be a case for early implementation of a few humps to curb the most excessive speeds – particularly in Colebrooke Road.  Otherwise, there should be a flexible and adaptive roll-out of humps and other engineering measures so that they are only introduced if and when shown to be essential.

 

 

PROVISION FOR CYCLING

 

The Millennium Cycle Route passes along Southwood Road and Dalmeny Street.  At present, cyclists emerging from Southwood Road have to contend with a blind corner.  Restrictions proposed for Southwood Road would help here.

 

The existence of a slow design speed for the Home Zone would mean that cycling would be safe on the carriageway.  Cycle lanes would not be necessary, but Bryanston Road and Buckland Street/Colebrooke Road would comprise useful cycling feeder routes.

 

For safety, and to assert cycling priority, a cycle lane should be marked out joining Southwood Road to Dalmeny Street.  Additionally, there should be a contra flow cycle path allowing cycles to use St Michaels Road in both directions, for example for shopping journeys to Kwik Save or Tesco.

 

The proposal recognises and accepts that most of the street space has been taken over for car parking.  It is only fair that some provision is made for secure on-street cycle parking.  Use of cycles is less convenient than use of cars, in some cases, because of the need to find storage space in the house or, alternatively, to take the trouble to bring the cycle out from storage in the yard.  We propose to experiment with the deployment of secure cycle lockers in the Home Zone.  We are in contact with design engineers to see if the shapes of the lockers can be made vandal resistant and hard to climb.

 

Additionally, low cost cycle parking (Sheffield Loops) should be provided for short-stay cycle parking.  In particular, cycle stands on the proposed kerb build-outs in Aigburth Road would encourage cycle-borne shopping trips to shops on Aigburth Road.

 

 

PROVISION FOR WALKING

 

There is an established Walking Bus route along Bryanston Road in which a rota of parents escorts children to St Michaels and St Charles’ primary schools.  Removing traffic from Bryanston Road would make the walk to school journey healthier and more congenial.

 

Slow vehicle speeds will greatly reduce the risk of collision damage to parked cars and will allow the practice of pavement parking to be tackled.  This will lead to clear pavements and less pavement damage.  Blind pedestrians, in particular, will benefit from that step.

 

With so much space given over to car parking in the carriageway, it is only right that the pavements are protected as important shared spaces for walking – and for talking and passing the time of day with neighbours.  The pavement becomes “the people’s patio”.

 

 

MODERATING THE DEMAND FOR CAR PARKING

 

The proposal broadly accepts existing parking arrangements – even though car parking is over-saturated by recognised parking standards.

 

High and rising car ownership is a consequence of the relative prosperity of the Bryanston Road area.  If the Home Zone succeeds it is likely that the prosperity of the area will be enhanced.  In the long term, it should be possible to have prosperity without necessarily having high car ownership, but in the short term that link is unlikely to be broken.

 

A community car-sharing club is in an advanced stage of preparation.  When established, it will provide much of the convenience of car ownership without leading to car dependency.  A small number of cars will be available for intermittent use, on demand, by members of the club.  If the club prospers it may lead to a reduction in the demand for car parking spaces.

 

 

ENHANCING THE STREETSCAPE

 

With the closure or restriction of road junctions on Bryanston Road, we have the potential to redesign the space at the intersections.  These can be seen as a series of 8 miniature village squares.

 

At those junctions, the carriageway and footway would be merged in a raised shared surface.  There would be no need to provide for two lanes of traffic – it would be sufficient, in each intersection, to provide for a single lane of traffic with room for a passing place.

 

The new “village squares” might be the best locations for the first cycle storage lockers and also for street trees which could then be visible from four directions.

 

Depending on the wishes of occupiers of corner properties, it may be possible to provide some protected gardens wrapped around the street corners.  These could be associated with and managed by the corresponding householder; some of them could be included in a community garden scheme.

 

The section of Bryanston Road between Alwyn Street and Lambton Road has little car parking because of the gable ends.  Currently there is a very austere streetscape with no greenery.  Street trees and community gardens could be developed in that section.

 

The exact shape of community gardens would be worked out in consultation with adjoining householders.  One possibility is to create vertical gardens using climbing plants to colonise blank gable-end walls.  Together with protective fencing, those gardens would discourage anti-social activities attaching to gable-ends.

 

Some householders, particularly in Allington Street, have dug up the narrow piece of ground in front of their houses and have created flourishing street gardens.  This practice could be encouraged and supported by a community garden scheme.

 

Sustainability of community gardens will depend, primarily, on volunteer effort.  To inform and co-ordinate that effort, we may be helped by organisations such as the Allotment Society at Dingle Vale and SMLLCA both of whom have been consulted and have expressed an interest in being associated with a community garden scheme.

 

The proposal would include children and young people in the redesign of the streetscape, so that disorder could be designed out from the beginning.  We expect to be guided on this process by Liverpool’s Play Services Manager.  Also, children may be willing to be involved in maintaining the community gardens.  There has been a recent successful example of such involvement co-ordinated by SMLLCA

 

 

PROMOTION OF BENIGN FORMS OF TRANSPORT

 

In collaboration with the Merseyside Travelwise campaign, we would propose an intensive promotion of alternatives to car use.  A successful Home Zone will not only achieve slower speeds; it will also lead to cars making fewer movements to allow space for other uses of the street to thrive.

 

A successful campaign should lead to a measurable impact on sales revenues at St Michaels Station and increased bus and train occupancy.  Some relevant statistics may be available from Arriva and/or Merseytravel in due course.

 

It should be possible to promote the identification of the Home Zone with its local station.  Links would be created with Arriva and Railtrack and with the Police so that problems are reported promptly and solutions are given sufficient priority.

 

Promotion of cycling could be linked with use of the station.  In particular, local participation in the organised Travelwise family cycle rides could be co-ordinated with a group rendezvous at St Michaels Station.

 

 

PLAY DEVELOPMENT

 

The proposal will do more than just reduce road danger and thence create a safer space for children to play.

 

Playing games in the street is problematical.  Some adults are uncomfortable about children playing in their street.  We propose to construct a dialogue involving children, parents and non-parent residents.  It should be possible to set down “best practice” guidelines for street games and street behaviour such that children can have fun and act spontaneously and autonomously, but in a way that does not damage property or appear threatening to others.  Again, we expect to look to the Liverpool’s Play Services Manager for support and we hope the local schools would wish to be involved in the dialogue.

 

Not all play should occur in the street.  We will seek to enhance and develop other play resources.  In particular, there is an apparently derelict patch of land in Buckland Street which could be converted into a community playground.  We have been offered an expression of support from Mr Derek Dottie in the council’s environmental services and we understand that the “Make A Difference” programme might be applicable to this development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key Criteria

 

 

Description as to How Proposal Meets Key Criteria

Extent to which the proposed Home Zone contributes to Liverpool City Council’s Objectives for the Area, and to furthering policies such as better urban renaissance, air quality, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General

This is a community-generated bid and the officers who read this bid are more likely than the writer to know the particular City Council Objectives to which this proposed Home Zone would contribute.

 

Housing

Vernacular terraced housing is a major part of the City’s housing stock.  The importance of rescuing this housing is already demonstrated by the Council’s commitment to the alleygating scheme.

 

Traditional high-density housing is valuable for a city because it concentrates people and resources and allows many activities to be within walking distance.  However it is in danger of being deserted by people with young children because of the lack of garden space and the lack of safe places to play which are close enough for parents’ informal supervision.

 

If such street space can be reclaimed as a congenial shared social space all sorts of benefits will be realised

¨      Less crime

¨      More community contact and strength

¨      Children and adults have the opportunity to learn co-operation and negotiation over behaviour rather than being in a state of mutual hostility and attrition

¨      Consequent improvement in the value of housing

¨      Extension of the useful lifespan of such property.

 

Traffic Reduction and Air Quality

The Home Zone involves restraint on motor vehicles’ undertaking short journeys of less than one mile within the proposed Home Zone and its neighbouring Hamlet settlement.  Such journeys are the most polluting and the most readily substituted by walking and cycling modes.

 

Millennium Cycle Route

The City Council supports the Millennium cycle route which passes along the edge of the Home Zone area.  The Home Zone proposal would rectify a junction safety deficiency at Southwood Road, create cycle feeder routes, promote cycling, and would lead to increased usage of the Millennium route.

 

School Travel

The Home Zone area contains an existing Walking Bus.  The planned removal of traffic from most of the Bus route would make the walk to school healthier and more congenial.

 

Traffic management measures needed for the Home Zone would tend to steer traffic away from school entrances. The local community primary school has applied to join the Council’s Safer Routes to Schools/School Travel Plans scheme and there is opportunity for some “joined-up” action.

 

There would be a safe cycle route through the Home Zone to school.

 

Innovation – both new uses and mechanisms for achieving change

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On-street cycle storage lockers.

 

Conversion of road junctions into miniature village squares,

 

Development of community gardens in space made available by redefining the use of footway and carriageway.

 

Development of new technology solutions for monitoring of driver behaviour.

 

Investigation of innovative enforcement methods using the threat of civil action in the courts.

 

Creative application of the new User Orders and Speed Orders, with active rather than just passive measures, to assert appropriate use of the carriageway for children’s play.

 

Development and application of best practice guidelines for on-street play in narrow terraces.

 

Scheme objectives, and mechanisms to involve the local community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Scheme Objectives.

The principal objective of the scheme is to reach a sustainable accommodation between the need to provide for relatively high levels of car ownership and the need to provide safe and congenial shared social space for children’s play and adults’ association.

 

Such an accommodation is very difficult in the context of traditional high density urban housing.  It is, however, a challenge which is inescapable if traditional terraced housing is to have a successful future – in this neighbourhood or elsewhere.

 

Despite consisting of modest dwellings, the proposed Home Zone area is, at present, a relatively prosperous area for Liverpool.  It has some problems and some residents comment on the area having “gone down” in recent years. 

 

While it remains prosperous – and for as long as car ownership is coupled with economic success – it will present the problem of pressure for car parking space.

 

Other areas of similar housing which have lower car ownership may present fewer difficulties to a Home Zone designer, but if Home Zones are to succeed in such areas the problem of car parking demand will re-present itself when the economic success of those areas is realized.

 

Community Involvement

This is a community-driven bid.

 

The instigating group, “Slowdown”, has members in each street and can continue to act as a generator of ideas and as a set of listening posts to receive and pass on feedback and ideas from the community.

 

The series of consultations envisaged will lead to an enrichment and intensification of the informal links which already exist between residents (adults and children), church groups, local schools, voluntary organizations and others.

 

There will be opportunities for creative design of objects in the streetscape.  This could harness the talents and enthusiasm of the area’s children and involve the local schools.

 

The scheme is intended to be flexible and adaptive – with scope to try ideas that may or may not work and replace them with alternatives.  The programme will involve judgments at the outset of and throughout its duration.  Such judgments and decisions will in some cases apply to the whole Home Zone, in other cases a decision will be needed at street level or for a section of a street.

 

A formal framework will need to be set up to facilitate those decisions and to give them effect.

 

Liverpool City Council has already taken steps to devolve appropriate decision taking through the Area Committees.  The local Area Committee should set up a working party to manage the scheme and appoint its members.  In due course the Area Committee may decide it is appropriate to move from appointment to direct election of to the working party.  At that stage, the working party might take on some resemblance to an urban parish council, subordinate to the Area Committee.

 

(It is likely that an application of local scale democracy might succeed in the area – a recent bye-election for one parent governor in the local community Junior School attracted three candidates and over 100 votes.)

 

Commitment to the Home Zones concept, for example by having a plan for a series of home zones

 

Commitment is Robust to the Funding Outcome

If this bid is submitted alongside other Liverpool bids then the basic point will be made.

 

If more than three bids are available and if some of these bids are for new build or redevelopment projects, the Council could show its commitment by being prepared to proceed with such projects even in the absence of Home Zone Challenge funding.

 

It could be argued that a new Home Zone development need not cost any more to build than a conventional carriageway-cum-pavement development.  Extra funding is nice to have, but not essential in the same way as for a retro-fit Home Zone.

 

Commitment Exemplified by Support of Community-Led Bid.

It will be noted that this application is being made by a community group established to address the community safety and quality of life issues around traffic and traffic-flow impacts. This means that the community led body is ideally placed to advance the aims and aspirations which lie behind Home Zones.

 

The Council could strengthen its commitment, through the local SRB Partnerships (represented by South Central Cluster), aiming to develop an exemplar which could showcase benefits around not only in the South Central area, but also around the Merseyside region. The project would allow a focus for a full-time co-ordinator to be recruited whose primary role would include the delivery of this scheme (an apprenticeship in Home Zones), and whose secondary role would include the dissemination of information and good practice expertise around the Liverpool and Merseyside areas.

Linkages to Government and Liverpool City Council policy initiatives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General

Again, this is a community-generated bid and the officers who read this bid are more likely than the writer to know the particular Government and City Council initiatives to which this proposed Home Zone would be linked.

 

Examples

We think the following policy linkages should exist:

  • Safer Routes to School
  • “Make a Difference”
  • Community Safety
  • Health improvement /Quality of life especially promoting physical activity
  • Regeneration
  • Play development
  • Merseyside Local Transport Plan.

 

Local Agenda 21

The Council’s LA21 policy has yet to be published.  The following environmental organizations and individuals have been involved with the City Council’s LA21 consultations and they are in support of this bid.

  • Liverpool Friends of the Earth
  • Transport 2000 (Liverpool)
  • Merseyside Cycling Campaign (Liverpool Group)
  • Prof. John Whitelegg, Liverpool John Moores University.

 

Realistic programme of work and adequacy of management and control processes for the project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Programme of Work

A programme of work will flow from the requirements of the scheme. 

 

At this stage we do not have a programme of work; what can be said is that

  • The project would be flexible and adaptive responding to emerging wishes of residents and to the outcomes of provisional implementation of design measures, and
  • Early implementation would be sought for measures which can stand on their own for their effect, for example the build-outs at the entrances onto Aigburth Road.

 

Management and Control Processes

Accountability to the local community and to the City Council should be though a working group set up by Area Committee H.

 

Day to day, or week to week management of the project should be undertaken by officers in the South Central Cluster in collaboration with Highways engineers and other relevant specialists in the City Council

 

 

 

 

 

Supplementary Criteria

 

 

Description as to How Proposal Meets Supplementary  Criteria

 

Consultation / Involvement / Engagement Measures already undertaken / underway / proposed (specify type)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consultation with City Council

The instigating group has offered its suggestions on local traffic management consistent with Home Zones to the City Council, for example

  • Through the local Area Committee H (minute 19d, 27 June 2001) and at earlier meetings
  • E-mail to Dave Drury, 2 July 2001
  • Meeting with Dave Nicholson at the Design Consultancy, 6th August 2001.  The intention was to discover if there were are serious flaws in the traffic management proposals which would have made a proposed Home Zone unworkable.

 

Consultation with Political Interests

The three Ward Councillors (Lib Dem) support the scheme.

 

Local representatives of other political parties (Conservative, Green and Labour) have been approached and are in support of the scheme.

 

Consultation with Residents - Undertaken

The parents who act as escorts of the Walking Bus were used as an initial sounding board – most are not members of “Slowdown”. 

 

Following the successful result, “Slowdown” volunteers conducted a sample survey. By the naïve method of polling houses ending in a 4 or a 7 we would expect a sample size of about 200 from the settlement.  After up to three repeat visits and the opportunity to post the replies we had 89 replies or responses of which 77 were in favour, 5 undecided and 7 against or refused to answer.  The questionnaire is appended to this document.

 

During the sample survey we discovered some new issues such as:

  • The problems for deaf children playing in the street
  • Disabled parking bays not being allowed within 10 metres of junctions
  • Parking contention related to the Church Hall in Belgrave Road

 

As a consequence of the survey we are not able to claim that the community is behind the proposal – most of them have not been asked.  What we know is that the community is highly likely to be in favour of the scheme when it is explained properly and residents are all consulted.  On the strength of that emerging evidence, “Slowdown” has been able to justify the considerable effort needed to bring the proposal to its current stage.

 

Consultation with Residents - Proposed

  1. Briefing to be prepared and distributed to all houses in the Home Zone.  “Freepost” questionnaire to be included.
  2. Questionnaire to have sections aimed at collecting views from children and young people.
  3. Questionnaire to ask for suggestions for a name to the Home Zone, e.g. “St Michaels Home Zone”.
  4. Public meeting to explain proposals and identify difficulties and improvements.

 

Consultation Involving Chetwynd Street

Initial consultation shows Chetwynd Street residents to be in favour of the scheme – particularly because it is associated with a removal of the burden of through traffic.  It is not obvious whether that street belongs to the Home Zone or to the Hamlet.  The implications should be put to residents of Chetwynd Street and, in due course, a consensus should emerge.

 

 

Consultation with Neighbouring Area

The traffic management proposals have been drafted with the aim of not worsening the situation for neighbouring settlements.  However the views of residents involved should not be taken for granted.  Thus far, we have been able to discuss the proposal at a special committee meeting of the St Michaels Road, Alpass Road and Southwood Road Residents’ Association.  That meeting was happy for the proposal to go forward.

 

The Home Zone will depend on a detailed traffic manage scheme to be in place for the neighbouring Hamlet area which should be constructed in the context of a plan for Safer Routes to School.  Full, detailed consultation would apply in that context.  However, all residents in the Hamlet area should be leafleted about the Home Zone proposal because of the intention to extinguish their right to drive to the Home Zone area along Bryanston Road.

 

Consultation with Businesses

There has been insufficient time so far to plan this.  Business interests include:

  • Shops on Aigburth Road
  • Rudham and Rowley print works on Dalmeny Street
  • The Belgrave Public House

 

Consultation with Landlords

Most of the housing is owner-occupied or owned by small landlords. Contact has been made with one social landlord in the area – CDS Housing.  There has not been time for CDS Housing to express a view on our proposal – other than that, in general terms, a community-led bid should be supported.

 

The CDS retirement home – Alman Court - in Bryanston Road is just outside the Home Zone area but would be affected by the proposals.  Care will be needed to avoid introducing severance and to improve old people’s pedestrian access to and within the Home Zone area.

 

Consultation with Churches

We have opened discussions with the parish church of St Michael-in-the-Hamlet with St Andrew.

 

The Church is a significant traffic generator in the area and some residents face contention over parking space in the evening, particularly near the Church Hall in Belgrave Road.

 

The Church is generally supportive of the principles in the Home Zone bid and would be willing to continue the conversation about green transport plans involving measures such as car sharing and the promotion of non-car travel.

 

Thence we may be able to reassure some churchgoers who have limited mobility and currently

depend on lifts from drivers who use Bryanston Road as their route to Church events.

 

With Merseyside Travelwise, it may be possible to create new promotional material aimed at church travel, e.g. "Walk to Worship".

 

Consultation with Emergency Services

We have not had time to consult Fire and Ambulance Services.

 

Inspector Derek Jobes, at Dingle and St Michael’s Neighbourhood team, Merseyside Police, has commended the Home Zone proposals and would be prepared to research funding sources for some of the measures proposed.

 

Consultation with Local Schools

The summer break has, so far, prevented renewed contact with St Charles’ RC Primary School and with Shorefields Community Comprehensive School.

 

Chairs of governors at St-Michael-in-the-Hamlet Junior and Infant Schools have re-affirmed the commitment to inclusion in Safer Routes/School Travel Plans and have assented to the connection being made with the Home Zone bid.  Head Teachers have been in contact within the last two days and have added their support.  The established Head at the Infant School and the newly appointed Head at the Junior School are interested in extending curriculum topics such as “Citizenship” to engage with the problems and opportunities of children’s street play.

 

Consultation with Other Interests

Consultation on the details of the construction and operation of the scheme will involve other bodies, for example

  • Statutory undertakings, e.g. Scottish Power
  • Taxi operators

 

 

Community Involvement Considerations following introduction of the Scheme.

 

 

See the proposal, above, under “Scheme objectives, and mechanisms to involve the local community”.

 

Without claiming exclusive representation of residents, the instigating group, “Slowdown” will aim to extend its membership, keep its Web Site up to date and act to stimulate discussion and development of ideas.

 

Consultation will be needed on timescales for the programme