Packington Traffic Calming Group PTCG Meeting

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Village Meeting Report – Thursday 16th November 2023

Our Traffic Calming meeting at the village hall was attended by:

  • Lead LCC Councillor Nick Rushton
  • LCC’s Traffic & Signals Team Manager
  • District Councillor Nigel Smith
  • two Parish Councillors
  • John the lollipop man
  • PTCG members
  • Unfortunately, no representative from Leicestershire Police

A presentation by the Chairman of the Packington Traffic Calming Group, Jonathan Alexander, described the work and research carried out over the past year with Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs) to show the problem our village has with regards to excessive traffic speed.

You can download a pdf file of the slides in the presentation, about 4MB, here:

20231120_PTCG-Meeting-PresentationDownload

  • John, the lollipop man, gave an oversight of his job which he has attended for 12 years. Daily he witnesses drivers ignoring signs, flashing lights, overtaking on the narrow bridge, giving hand gestures, and he himself has had to shield parents & children due to drivers not adhering to the 30mph, let alone the 20mph school zone. He feels very passionate about this and is a great asset to our cause.
  • Members of the Group raised many important and valid points, and full support was given by the Parish Councillors.
  • As anticipated, we were advised by LCC that they do not have the funds to implement any traffic calming in the village – “there is no money in the pot!”
  • The Group advised that we would attempt to raise the funds by way of grants or fundraising, but are currently unable to proceed further until we know what type of speed measures can be agreed on and aimed for.
  • After some persuasion, LCC agreed to assist us in providing their opinion, advice and knowledge with regards to the type and cost of traffic calming measures and that they would come back to us before the end of the financial year.
  • The Group put forward a very detailed and heartfelt case advising LCC that we are in this for the long haul! The sorry situation for pedestrians on Measham Road was highlighted, where an already critically-narrow footpath is further blocked by a telegraph pole:

We would like to say a big thank-you to Context Products Ltd for printing the handouts.

Subsequent Speed Checks

On Saturday 25th November 2023 there were police speed checks on Measham Road. In half an hour, 6 vehicles out of 81 vehicles were above the prosecution threshold.
We understand there were further police speed checks in Packington on Saturday 23rd December, although the location and number of prosecutions for our village is not yet known.

Please make comments or suggestions by email to :
PTCG Chair – Jonathan Alexander – email: jonathan.alexander.uk@outlook.com
PTCG Secretary – Nicola Beanland – email: nicolabeanland@btinternet.com