Please support this action to compel Cheshire West and Chester Council to:

1) Implement an immediate, temporary 30 mph limit on this section of Wrexham Road.

2) Proactively work with the school and local community to implement permanent changes to this junction to further reduce risks.

3) In future, proactively include representations from the local community in risk assessments, rather than rely on third party views and a future accident rate. 

 

Background

In 2022, to allow for the greenfield development of over 1,400 homes, a new road junction was created on A483 Wrexham Road creating a crossroad into the development and at the entrance to The King's School. 

The new layout needed to allow for many conditions, in particular to avoid creating a new traffic bottleneck. The new layout is highly engineered to all the latest standards. 

However, once opened, it became clear to any pedestrian who was a regular user of the crossing that it had created a very high risk situation for pedestrians. In particular the usage by the junction pupils from the 1,100 pupil Kings School at peak times was an obvious concern. These concerns have been raised on multiple occasions by multiple parties to the local authority. The authority stood by their view that the junction was well engineered and safe. The only factor that would appear to change that view in the future was a change in the accident rate at the junction. 

This email from the local authority via the Chester MP explains their stance:

Reply from Sam Dixon:
We have received a response from the Chief Executive at Cheshire West and Chester Council:

“Dear Sam
 
Thank you for your letter dated 29th May 2024 on behalf of your constituent.
 
I understand the concerns your constituent has raised about the speed limit on A483 Wrexham Road outside the Kings School.
 
The speed limit has been assessed several times, with the latest survey carried out in June 2022 following similar concerns. The Council’s policy for assessments and setting speed limits is to follow the Department for Transport (DfT) Circular 1/2013 ‘Setting Speed Limits’. The outcome of each of our assessments were no change in the current 40 mph speed limit which has the support of Cheshire Police.
 
The Council has a separate criterion to the DfT Circular for outside schools, where average speeds must be below 30 mph before a 20 mph speed limit can be introduced. The average speed on Wrexham Road during the assessment was 36 mph reducing to 32 mph at the start and finish of the school day.  There are no locations in the borough where the speed limit is reduced just for school times as we consider this not practical.
 
The section of Wrexham Road around the Kings School has a good safety record with no recorded injury collisions since the new signals became operational in May 2022. The highways team will continue to monitor this location. 
 
I hope you find this response helpful.”

The junction has unfortunately been demonstrated to be high risk, and now is the time for the local authority to act together with input from the community to better accommodate the needs and usage patterns of pedestrians.

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After: