TRAFFIC conditions in Stockton Heath are “not acceptable” and improvements need to be made according to the borough council.
John Redmond, operations manager at the borough’s urban traffic management and control centre, told Stockton Heath Parish Council he was looking at ways to improve traffic in the village.
A £175,000 improvement plan for Victoria Square lights is expected to be approved in January, and work implemented early next year. This will improve the crossings and provide a right filter turn for drivers coming from Grappenhall Road towards the swing bridge.
Changes are also being trialled on the crossing by the post office. Timing would be altered to allow more people to cross at each phase of the lights and so cause less disruption to traffic.
Mr Redmond said there were also plans to improve traffic in the Fairfield Road and London Road junction area. A right filter would be introduced to allow better traffic flow and consideration would be given to restricting parking in Fairfield Road, near the junction.
It was also planned to introduce warning signs on the approaches to the swing bridge giving advance notice to drivers that the bridge would swing.
“We can tell people in advance in case they want to change direction. The signs will be black and only come on when needed.”
Members were concerned that drivers left their engines running when the bridge was off and added to pollution and Mr Redmond agreed to look at ways of reminding them to turn the engine off.
“There are measures we can take to improve the traffic problems, but it is a slow process,” he said. “I have seen the effect of traffic on Stockton Heath and it is not acceptable, we should be doing something about it.”
Coun Liz Jewkes said: “The numbers of cars going through red lights is extremely dangerous – why can’t we have cameras?”
Mr Redmond said the borough council wasconsidering introducing automatic number plate recognition cameras in the village to target offenders.
