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Road Safety Improvements - Hamilton Road, Belshill

North Lanarkshire Council · 2 November 2022
Back to Petitions Sub-Committee — 2 November 2022 and its agenda

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North Lanarkshire Council
Report
Petitions Sub Committee 
Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes   ☐ No
Ref 225 Date 02/11/22 
Petition – Road Safety Improvements – Hamilton Road, Bellshill 
From  Pamela Humphries, Head of Planning and Regeneration  
E-mail alia@northlan.gov.uk Telephone Azhar Ali 07415 854472 
1. Background 
1.1 The Council received a petition on 3 May 2022, containing 17 signatures requesting
that the Council install safety cameras (speed cameras), pedestrian barrier and traffic
signals on Hamilton Road adjacent to the new development at McGuigan Court,
Bellshill. 
1.2 All requests the Council receives for road safety improvements are carefully considered
and evaluated on a priority basis. The evaluation is based on a review of Police
Scotland’s road injury accident database along with review of traffic survey data for the
location. As part of the evaluation a site assessment is undertaken. 
1.3 This well-established practice ensures that the Council’s finite resources are targeted
to the areas of greatest need in our community.  This approach has significantly
Executive Summary 
The purpose of the report is to advise the Committee of the investigations carried out in
response to the petition for road safety improvements on Hamilton Road Bellshill adjacent
to McGuigan Court. 
Recommendations
It is recommended that Committee 
1. Acknowledges the investigations undertaken and response to the petitioners
dated 12 July 2022.
2. Agrees there is no evidence base for any engineering interventions at this
location. 
The Plan for North Lanarkshire
Priority  Improve North Lanarkshire's resource base
Ambition statement (17) Ensure we keep our environment clean, safe, and attractive

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reduced the number of road injury accidents in North Lanarkshire over a number of
years. 
2. Report 
2.1 The petition was submitted to the Council following an allegation that a dog had been
struck by a vehicle on Hamilton Road, and that it was unsafe for children living in
McGuigan Court to be playing outside. 
2.2 To help understand the conditions on Hamilton Road, a traffic survey was undertaken
on Hamilton Road for a seven-day period, commencing on 14 June 2022.  The survey
was undertaken adjacent to the junction of McGuigan Court as shown on the location
plan in Appendix A and measured the 85th percentile speeds at this location. The 85th
percentile speed is defined as the speed at or below which 85 percent of all vehicles
are observed to travel under free-flowing conditions past a monitored point and is the
standard metric used to establish speed limits on roads.   
2.3 The survey confirmed that the 85th percentile speeds were 34mph which is
representative of roads of this type. As Police Scotland is the only authority that have
enforcement powers in relation to speeding motorists, the results of the survey were
passed to their Roads Policing Division on 12 July 2022. This will enable Police
Scotland to consider targeted enforcement activity at this location. 
2.4 A review of Police Scotland’s road injury accident statistics on Hamilton Road was also
undertaken for the most recent five year period where data was available, which was
from 28 June 2017 to 27 June 2022. The review confirmed there have been no injury
accidents recorded in this time period on Hamilton Road, between the on and off-slips
of the A725 Bellshill Bypass, which also included the access to McGuigan Court. 
2.5 The provision of safety cameras is administered by Strathclyde Safety Camera
Partnership who work alongside Police Scotland to determine the most appropriate
locations for these interventions.  Consequently, these safety interventions are outwith
the remit and influence of the Council.  Details of the organisation and how to contact
them  (https://www.safetycameras.gov.scot/) were previously provided to the petitioner. 
2.6 The request for pedestrian barrier at the end of the footpath leading from McGuigan
Court to Hamilton Road was also carefully considered. However, when considering that
pedestrian barrier is generally used to channel pedestrians to safe crossing points and
that an adequate separation of six metres has been provided between the carriageway
edge and boundary fence of the development, pedestrians have adequate visibility in
both directions to detect oncoming traffic. 
2.7 The provision of signalised crossings is carefully assessed in accordance with
government guidance and provided where certain criteria are met. These are: the built
environment; pedestrian volumes against traffic volumes; and pedestrian crossing
demand. When reviewing the location on Hamilton Road adjacent to McGuigan Court,
this section of road is very unlikely to meet the criteria for a crossing as there is limited
direct residential or commercial frontage onto the road, low numbers of pedestrian
footfall, no community facility, place of interest, place of employment, education or bus
stops which would generate pedestrian demand to cross Hamilton Road and merit a
crossing. For these reasons, the provision of a signalised crossing was not considered
appropriate at this location.

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3. Summary 
3.1 The Council received a petition on 3 May 2022, containing 17 signatures requesting
that the Council install safety cameras (speed cameras), pedestrian barrier and traffic
signals on Hamilton Road adjacent to the new development at McGuigan Court,
Bellshill. 
3.2 A robust assessment into existing road conditions was carried out, including traffic
surveys to establish the speed, volume and classification of vehicles using Bellshill
Road. A review of recorded injury accidents was conducted and a site assessment was
carried out. 
3.3 After careful consideration of the accident history and traffic surveys there is no
evidence base for any engineering interventions at this location. 
3.4 The petition was responded to on 12 July 2022, containing the same information
provided in this report. There has been no further correspondence from the petitioners
since that time. 
4. Supporting documentation 
4.1 Appendix A – Location plan of traffic survey on Hamilton Road, Bellshill 
Pamela Humphries
Head of Planning and Regeneration

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Appendix A

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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 
5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty
Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public
Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 
If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website?
https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer-
scotland-duty-impact-assessments
Yes ☐ No ☐
5.2 Financial impact
Does the report contain any financial impacts?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with
Financial Solutions?
Yes ☐ No ☐
If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 
5.3 HR policy impact 
Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People
and Organisational Development?
Yes ☐ No ☐
If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 
5.4 Legal impact
Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory
considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal
and Democratic Solutions?
Yes ☐ No ☐
If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 
5.5 Data protection impact 
Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal
data?  
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data
subject?
Yes ☐ No ☐
If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e-
mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk 
Yes ☐ No ☐
5.6 Technology / Digital impact
Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital
transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or
connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact?

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Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been
carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group
(EAGG)? 
Yes ☐ No ☐
5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact
Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any
environmental or carbon matters?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 
5.8 Communications impact
Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s
communications activities?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 
5.9 Risk impact
Is there a risk impact?
Yes ☐ No ☒
If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts,
highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service
or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed?