Lydford local issues, politics and comment

An alternative view

Road safety on the A386

A386 at Vale Down

Speeding on the A386 has long been a problem for the residents of the Vale Down area of Lydford. There is a 40 mph limit from just south of the Dartmoor Inn to just north of the Fox and Hounds but many motorists ignore the limit. Breaking the speed limit at Vale Down seems to be very common. In 2005 Vale Down residents raised a petition which was sent to the MP for Torridge and West Devon.

Our local MP has taken an interest and has provided help and encouragement. Unfortunately not all local politicians have been so helpful.

Parish council and local police

The parish council have shown interest in tackling speeding at Skitt Lane and at the junction near the Dartmoor Inn (para 115 LPC minutes Nov 2004 and subsequent minutes). A letter from a Vale Down resident (para. 85 LPC minutes July 2005) gained some support but little in the way of action.

The January 2008 minutes of LPC (para. 04.5) record the view of the then police Community Beat Manager. In relation to speed checks he seemed to feel that it does not matter where on the A386 these checks are carried out they would have the same effect of encouraging drivers to curtail their speed. This is not the case as motorists are more likely to speed on the Vale Down straight than at other locations such as Mary Tavy or Sourton. This is because the road between the Fox and Hounds and the Moor View Hotel is the first decent straight stretch of road for some miles when travelling south. Similarly when travelling north the stretch of road between the Dartmoor Inn and the Moor View Hotel provides a reasonably straight piece of road for those drivers desperate to pass and who do not care about adhering to the speed limit.

Additionally villages such as Mary Tavy and Sourton already have measures in place to encourage motorists to adhere to the speed limits. Both Mary Tavy and Sourton have vehicle activated speed signs and Sourton additionally has traffic calming islands at both ends of the village. Research has shown these measures to be effective and the fact that Vale Down does not have them is another reason why speeding is so common here.

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More needs to be done at Vale Down

It is for the reasons explained above that Vale Down is a special case and that more efforts to enforce the speed limit should be made in this area. There have been accidents and near misses. Must there be multiple fatalities before effective action is taken?

Road markings changed following surface dressing

In August 2008 a section of the A386 at Lydford from roughly the Dartmoor Inn to the Fox and Hounds was surface dressed. This, of course, meant that the road markings had to be replaced. This was done in September but unfortunately the markings now are significantly different from the previous ones and this may well give rise to increased risk of an accident.

As mentioned above for vehicles travelling south the straight from the Fox and Hounds to the Moor View Hotel is the first since Sourton and overtaking is common here. There is a bend in the road near the Moor View Hotel and this can catch motorists out if they are travelling too fast when they reach the bend or if northbound traffic appears unexpectedly.

Previously this corner had double white centre lines which provided a good indication to motorists just what space they had available for overtaking without crossing a solid white line. These double white lines have now been replaced with a single dotted hazard line, even right on the bend itself. With certain exceptions overtaking involving crossing a solid white centre line is an offence so there was a good incentive to obey the previous road markings but now, it seems, people are free to overtake even on the bend. This has to be less safe than the road marking layout we had before and one wonders just why Devon County Council has allowed this.

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Residents unhappy about changes

An individual complaint made on 16th September 2008 received a response on 6th October, i.e. 4 weeks after the complaint. The response from Devon County Council said little more than the situation had been reconsidered following the introduction of the 40mph limit. It is not at all clear just why it is necessary to 'compensate' for the introduction of the 40 limit by removing the double white lines therefore increasing risk.

Lydford Parish Council took this issue up both with Devon County Council Highways Department and also the police. It was reported in the December 2008 edition of the parish magazine that the police road safety officer had indicated support for the re-instatement of the double white lines and there was talk of a meeting between the police and DCC Highways representatives. It is not clear if this meeting actually took place and there has been little further information on this approach.

Individual attempts to get this problem recognised continued during December 2008 and January 2009. With help of a Devon County Councillor (not the one for this area) and the involvement of the Highways Assistant Area Engineer agreement was reached for a site specific road safety audit to be carried out.

Results of site specific road safety audit

In April 2009 the results of a site specific road safety audit (opens in a new window) were made available. This was what is known as a "Stage 3b safety audit".

Despite the fact that it was carried out by road safety professionals, the safety audit did not cover issues that some residents might think important. For instance there was no consideration of the re-instatement of the double solid white centre lines, indeed the scope of the audit seems to be restricted to current road markings only, which is quite some restriction. Also there was no consideration of accident statistics, volume of traffic, frequency of speeding on the straight stretches, blind drives, lack of pavements, the opinion of people who live nearby or other issues that non-professionals might have thought important.

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Contacting the DCC Councillor

By mid 2009 it became obvious that Devon County Council Highways Department were sticking to their guns and using the site specific safety audit as justification. A new County Councillor for this area had been elected in June replacing one who had been out of action for a significant period due to illness. In August 2009 a letter was sent to this newly elected councillor explaining the situation, that the response that had been received from DCC Highways Department was unsatisfactory and expressing concern over the content of the safety audit. A copy of the audit was enlosed to make it as easy as possible for the councillor to understand the concern. No reply, or even an acknowledgement of receipt, was received. A second letter was sent in September. Again, silence.

Whilst one does not expect County Councillors to get involved in day to day running of the Council they are actually responsible for setting policy and they have a role to play in representing ordinary folk where they are otherwise running up against a brick wall when trying to deal with council employees. To not even reply to a genuine concern expressed by a member of public whom that Councillor is supposed to represent is not good. There might be justification for not replying if the Councillor was being bombarded by letters on more or less the same topic but it is really hard to see any justification for not replying to a first letter.

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Let's try again

An accident occurred in May 2010 at Vale Down on the A386. A driver crashed his car whilst trying to overtake where there had previously been double solid white centre lines. A further letter, containing a photograph of the accident scene, was sent to the DCC Councillor for this area. On this occasion a copy was also sent to the local MP.

This time a reply was forthcoming. A copy of the councillor's reply (opens in a new window) is available.

The reply makes much of the professionalism of the staff employed by Devon County Council but does nothing to address the criticisms of the safety audit. Reading the Councillor's reply, which can be summarised as 'leave it to the experts', one wonders what part (if any) ordinary members of the public have to play in the "Big Society" idea as put about by the coalition Government.

One of the points made by the Councillor in his reply is that he is not a qualified highway engineer which rather misses a key aspect of the DCC site specific safety audit and that is that it is so lacking in technical detail as to be no great challenge for anyone to understand. It simply does not address safety issues to any significant extent. An analogy can be drawn with a house survey. Unless qualified, one might not understand all the issues raised in a full survey of a house but at least one could see that certain issues had been considered. A report that just says "This house is sound. Trust me I'm a qualified surveyor" might not inspire confidence.

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Community Speed Watch

In the Lydford Parish Magazine of July 2011 a note appeared mentioning a Community Speed Watch (CSW) scheme that had been running in the area since December 2010. This involves volunteers using equipment to monitor traffic speed at pre-determined sites. The scheme has the backing of Devon and Cornwall Police.

As well as providing information on the proportion of speeding motorists it may serve to remind motorists to check their speed. It also shows that there are local people who care enough about road safety in Lydford to give up their time to do the monitoring.

Parish Council 2011 and road safety

Clearly it is not just the CSW volunteers who are concerned about road safety. At the first meeting of the parish council after the May 2011 elections a councillor spoke of concern about speed on the A386. Unfortunately it was not the councillor who was concerned but rather a member of the public who could not attend the meeting.

At the September 2011 meeting a parish councillor spoke on behalf of residents of the village who were concerned about speeding. The result of a discussion was that the Clerk was asked to write to Devon County Council Highways Department to request a reduction in the speed limit from 30 to 20 mph from the railway bridge through to the gorge.

From the October 2011 minutes we learn that the same councillor expressed himself "very disappointed" with response from Highways. That it was turned down should come as no surprise. The fact that certain criteria need to me met, and that Lydford does not meet them, could easily have been determined by a phone call to the DCC Highways Department. There was no need to raise false hopes.

Of course this is not the first time that reduction in speed limit has been proposed. On 29th July 2007 the chair of the Parish Plan Steering Group wrote "I am keen to identify a targeted zone (potentially around Nicholls hall) for a 20mph limit." The Parish Plan was formally abandoned at the December 2009 meeting of Lydford Parish Council. See Parish Plan

It does seem a shame that despite their access to public funds, their contacts with West Devon Borough Council, Dartmoor National Park Authority and Devon County Council and with all the concerns expressed by parishioners, this and the previous parish council have failed to achieve anything positive to improve road safety.

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Vehicle activated speed sign

In March 2012 a vehicle activated speed sign appeared beside the A386 about a quarter of a mile north of the Dartmoor Inn. This type of sign lights up when traffic is detected that is exceeding the speed limit. It was positioned so as to face northbound traffic.

A report by the Transport Research Laboratory TRL548 has shown that these signs are effective in reducing speed and accidents.

It is not clear who was responsible for the placing of this sign. Whoever it was deserves thanks for at least trying. The parish council minutes record no discussion about it. Given the apparent positive effect of such signs it is sad that this one lasted only a couple of weeks before disappearing.

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Photographs of road markings

The photographs below show the current and previous road markings:-

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Must there be multiple fatalities before effective action is taken?

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