Wednesday, 13 December 2006

Brockdish Roadside Obstructions

(this website was setup as a voice for all, not for the opinion of one)

Recently a number of obstructions in the form of wooden posts have been placed on the quiet road opposite the school as a pedestrian hazard. Children embarking or disembarking from vehicles are in much more danger than ever before. Vehicles are forced to squeeze through a gap between posts and children and other vehicles are being put at risk. Aside from this vehicles parked alongside the road are in great danger. The road is not now wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other.


Questions are: why are the obstructions there? Who's safety are they there to protect? What purpose do they serve other to promote danger to children and vehicles? Can a bill be sent to the council for repairs when vehicles are finally damaged permanently? Will they be removed before the first damage to human life?

"Wooden bollards are often used ... pedestrians now have the option of walking along verges without slipping on mud and possibly falling into the road." - Gary Overland Highway Engineer

Surely some concessions have to be made for the fact that Brockdish is lucky enough to have a village school. Persecuting parents and children for attending the school seems pointless and self interested. School traffic only lasts for two short periods of the day.

If the posts are there to protect a grass verge at the cost of safety to children, pedestrians and damage to vehicles then it can only be assumed that grass is more important to the constructors of these obstructions than human life. Many are parking on the yellow hatchings as the road is now too narrow. If the emergency services required access there would be problems.

South Norfolk District Council, the Councillor for Brockdish and MP for Brockdish were all written to on the 12th of December '06. Some posters were also distibuted in order to make the world aware of this website simply so anyone can voice thier opinions on this matter.

Local people, teachers, the school governors, the headmaster have all voiced concern about these posts.

South Norfolk District Council say that Norfolk County Council are responsible for this issue and can be contacted below:

Department of Planning and Transportation
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich
NR1 2SG
Tel: 01603 222143
Fax: 01603 223219
E-mail: pt@norfolk.gov.uk

To complain contact:

Brockdish Parish Council
Mr D Jenvey
Goulders Farm
Vicarage Road
Wingfield
Diss
IP21 5RB
Tel: 01379 388184
E-mail: brockdishtapc@aol.com

Ultimately if the Parish Council vote to rid of the posts they will go so best complain there rather than anywhere, they seem to hold sway over the Department of Planning and Transportation.

9 comments:

justin said...

I live in Thorpe Abbotts and the logical place to park is on the quiet road before the school. During the short periods of the day when children are being delivered or collected from the school there is actually nowhere else to park in the village. For the last three years this has not been a problem until the wooden posts arrived.

Now my children are at risk everytime they attempt to get in the car. It takes several attempts to get into the car due to traffic squeezing down the now very narrow road.

I have recently purchased a car for £8000, nineteen years savings on my part, and today the wing mirror was practically snapped off by a driver squeezing through the gap between our car and the obstructions. I have owned the car less than a month and yet this issue has already been responsible for damage to it.

Surely these verges are not owned by anyone, so what do the posts protect? Certainly not the lives of children, adults and (more expensive than grass) motor vehicles?

Don MacKenzie said...

I have most of the posts outside my property.

I may or may not agree with your comments.

Fly Posting leaflets is illegal and will not further your cause

Contact South Norfolk District Council who own the posts and also the first 12-18 inches of any grass verge.

The post are wooden and comply with conservation requirements.

Go to a Parish Council Meeting and raise the concerns yourself.

Look in your current edition of the Mardler or ring me on 668818 and i will give you the numbers of local councillors.

justin said...

highways@norfolk.gov.uk said:

I can confirm that the timber bollards at Grove Road were erected by this department following concerns raised by the Parish Council. You may have been aware, that for a considerable period of time prior to the installation of the bollards, various obstructions had been placed on the highway verges in the vicinity of the school. The obstructions
varied in size and type, but were all classified as illegal obstructions of the highway verge. Despite the obstructions being removed on a regular basis, it was not possible for me to keep the highway verges in a safe and useable condition without installing suitable protection.

Wooden bollards are often used by this department to protect vulnerable highway users from vehicular traffic in the absence of any footway.
There is obviously no footway opposite the school, but pedestrians now have the option of walking along verges without slipping on mud and possibly falling into the road.

For you further information, I can confirm that a further three posts
have been programmed to be installed at the southern approach to the school early in the new year, also at the Parish Council's request.

I would hope that the foregoing information has fully answered your
enquiry, but if you wish to discuss this matter further, please contact
Gary Overland on 01603 819800.

Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention.

Yours sincerely

Gary Overland
Highway Engineer

Headteacher said...

If the posts were erected due to parking of cars by the school.The parking at the school is only for a few minutes each day, which people buying properties on Grove within the last 150 years would be aware of.

justin said...

I have to report that my car has been damaged further due to the posts, this is getting very expensive for me. Also my wife and I can report that we have trouble getting our children into the car due to traffic and we feel that my wife, children and I are at risk of injury each trip to the school. It seems our main option is simply to take our children away from the school.

justin said...

Sally said...
I think your comments are unessisarily emotive regarding children and grass verges. I think it is disappointing you have not spoken to some of the residents and you are assuming that all parents to the school are represented by your comments. The wooden posts are the replacements for the makeshift stones and logs that individual had placed which were deemed unacceptably dangerous to road users. The county council removed them after local residents said that parking caused them obstructed access and were hazardous-limiting visibility for both other road users, pedestrians, cyclists, and local people gaining access to Grove road. A risk assessment was requested that looked at these issues and the county councilmade the decision under the highways act to reinforce that the highway for grove road in legal terms is from verge to verge- not hedge to hedge. The parking was also noted to be illegal much of the time blocking acess to the fire hydrant and on the yellow lines
...the implications apparent in that vehicles -most of whom are resident within a half mile radius of the school....do not park with any consideration for the safety of others-should the village need emergency services the parking of parents at the school would hinder any such assistance.There are 3 or 4 vehicles all of whom reside within 100 yds of each other and all seem drop and collect children -without any consideration of lift sharing or even walking, or cycling.The use of a car is a choice not an obligation-almost all the children live within the village (there are a couple who do not)...the school could in fact have allocated an area for parking in the front garden-but did not even consider this option in planning or design...the problem will not be solved by removing the wooden posts...the problem needs a long term plan should the schools population grow....to accommodate this good will is necessary from all aspect of the village-not just the parents of here and now
....we liove in mixed communities and the problem of parking will not be solved by making the issue unnecessarily emotive....residents and their children are equally as important to safety as are the school users. The county council are aware of the problem-blaming people won\'t solve the problem-the question should be how does removing the posts help iprove the quality of the parking.....and what would improve the parking problem is to have a designated car park area-....perhaps loking at use of the common land at the back of the school- or redesign the area of the access road to the school and verges....?the key is to find a range of solutions which can be discussed an meet the needs of the community as a whole....not divide a community and cause conflict.

justin said...

The headmaster and J Tuijl attended a meeting of the parish council
where the debate revealed divisions in the community over the issue.

Subsequent to the newspaper article certain residents of the village
voiced their opposition to the posts.

In a meeting with the headmaster the school governors have decided
that the posts should be opposed. Therefore the headmaster can now
voice his desire to remove the posts.

On Thursday 22-2-7 there was a meeting of villagers, headmaster,
teachers, parents and the transport authority representative and it
was discovered that the posts actually stand in the tarmac of the
road. It seems the transport authority were advised that parents
parked on the grass verge, which has never been the case.

The transport authority rep will now go back to the parish council and
suggest removal of some of the posts.

The road is not wide enough for two cars to pass easily travelling on
opposite directions.

It has been revealed that the posts are there to stop a muddy verge as
the expense of parents and hildren, and specifically to stop parents parking near the school.

justin said...

More fuss at the school today.

A lorry and another car stood waiting to pass two cars on the road in the usual place.

A resident/parent of grove road told another parent to move her car as she was: "Illegally parked"

When the parent returned to her car she received verbal abuse from the Father of the resident/parent in question.

A loud 'slagging match' ensued between owners of cars and owners of property, with a new parent in earshot.

Playground brawls enacted by adults!

justin said...

There was a review of the posts my the Parish Council and the Transport Authority and the vote was to keep the posts in light of no complaints being received, which is odd as I complained months ago. I have re-complained. After this my five year old son was nearly run over by a four wheel drive as he stepped between two people carriers parked on the yellow hatchings. A few days later a traffic warden appeared and there was a lot of fuss. I shall attend another Parish Council meeting to complain again to be rid of these posts before something 'bad' happens.