WELFORD ACTION GROUP

Mission: To focus on traffic problems affecting the safety of Welford residents and work towards solving them.

Welford Action Group meets once every two weeks to address its concerns about traffic in Welford. Speed of the traffic is an issue within the village and we are pleased that Welford Parish Council is taking active steps to monitor thoughtless drivers. However WAG’s main concern is that of heavy goods vehicles using the High Street as a short cut to and from the A14.
They do this for several reasons:
• The dire nature of Junction 19 of the M1 means that delays frequently occur there
• Leicestershire’s policy of forcing traffic onto the A5199 because areas of land either side have weight restrictions.
• Leicestershire granting planning permission to businesses subject to conditions, which are subsequently ignored.
• Biffa refuse lorries are coming from Leicester City Council following a fire at the Beaumont Leys depot.

In a recent survey, it was revealed that 3,000 vehicles used Welford High Street in a twelve hour period, 309 of which were Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s). The High Street was never designed to accommodate such a volume or weight of traffic. Two lorries can not pass each other in parts without mounting the pavement. Lorry sizes are planned to increase, structural damage is blighting many of the houses now and the road itself.

We understand that parking on the High Street is an issue with some people. If you think about it, many homes there don’t have driveways or garages and whatever parking facilities there used to be – such as at the Shoulder of Mutton – have been sold off and built on. The renovations of houses along the High Street do not appear to include garages and more are planned, as a result people have no where else to park their cars. To our knowledge two households park a car on High Street to prevent lorries careering along the pavement inches from their front doors. It would be no contest between a 44 tonne lorry and a small child, emerging from their front door to go to school.

Most recently we have had a meeting with Northants County Councillor and a larger meeting of all agencies and Phil Sawford MP, which we will report on in the next edition. Everyone agrees Welford has a problem and whilst a by pass would relieve the High Street, a recent survey revealed a majority of the villages are against this as it would have other consequences.

WHAT WE WANT IS A WEIGHT RESTRICTION!

What has WAG achieved so far?

• The A5199 is NOT used for planned diversions from the A14 by the Highways Agency or the Police.
• Weetabix have agreed NOT to use us as a transport route.
• The last large meeting for all concerned achieved recognition of our problem. One Highways officer admitted “Oops we got it wrong” a road map gives a false impression.

If the proposed gravel extraction goes ahead, Court Lane will be severely affected by lorries, and then, when there is a huge whole in the ground, it will be a prime site for a refuse tip – guess where the lorries will be travelling!

In the meantime WAG continues to liase with surrounding villages also affected by traffic. We enjoyed supporting the ‘Sportsfield Association’ by taking part in the Welford carnival with our cake stall and ‘Rolf on Art’ float (2nd prize).
We will continue to campaign and hope that some of your concerns have been answered by this article – particularly the issue of parking. Unless they park outside your home there is nowhere else to go!

Do you have a professional skill i.e. legal or civil engineering which may help us in this campaign, please let us know?

REMEMBER IF YOU EXPERIENCE ANY INCIDENT ON THE ROADS IN WELFORD; REPORT THEM TO THE POLICE NO MATTER HOW SMALL - AS WITHOUT THIS DATA THEY WILL CONTINUE TO THINK THE A5199 IS A SAFE ROAD!

WAG NEWS April 2007

Following on from our article in the Bugle last year we felt it was time to update you on what has been happening. Not surprisingly very little has been happening. After the very positive meeting with the Environment and Transport Scrutiny Committee the following was resolved:

That initially, officers from Northamptonshire County Council cooperate with Leicestershire County Council to agree a credible set of data on HGV levels in the area;
That Northamptonshire County Council coordinates with Leicestershire County Council to explore with the Highways Agency the introduction of a comprehensive weight restriction or other measures to minimise and restrict the level of disruption to the network during the construction of junction 19;
That these measures should be appropriately monitored, to provide information for planning a permanent solution;
That meanwhile, efforts should continue to be made for deterring HGVs from taking routes through villages in the area including Welford;

These issues should have been acted upon within 6 months. However, we shouldn’t have been surprised that in November, over 8 months later, officers had done nothing to move the recommendations forward. Councillor Bob Seery, NCC Cabinet member for Highways, has endorsed the recommendations, but set a report date of no later than June 2007.

The above actions are tied to the construction work on the A14/M1 junction that was due to begin in early 2007. As you will know, the start date for this project has moved and is now due to begin in 2009 (and therefore probably 2010 when we get to it).

What this means practically is that no decisions will be taken before June 2007, after which, if a temporary or permanent weight restriction is to be put in place, this will not happen before the beginning of the J19 works – in 2009/10. We believe that a permanent solution needs to be in place earlier than that!

The Action Group and Parish Council will continue to pressure NCC to implement a permanent solution to our traffic issues.

We encourage all of you with internet access to sign the on-line petition to the Prime Minister at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/M1-M6-A14-Junc/ to pressure him to expedite works to Junction 19.

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