A815 Sandbank Community Event - 30 May 2024
Argyll and Bute Council · 13 August 2024
Back to Bute and Cowal Area Community Planning Group — 13 August 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership [Bute and Cowal] Area Community Planning Group [date of meeting] Sandbank Traffic Management Summary Network and Standards (RIS) have been asked to look at issues raised by local residents as well as Sandbank Community Development Trust (SCDT) in relation to road traffic issues and incidents along the A815 specifically in the Sandbank area. A meeting was held in Argyll House Dunoon on Thursday 30 Mat 2024 at 1100hrs with attendance from local residents, SCDT, local elected members as well as N+S officers. Where various issues were discussed including speeding on the A815, general condition of roads and pavements, pedestrian crossing facilities and on road parking. 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the initial meeting held by Argyll and Bute Roads and Infrastructure Services staff with the local community and the Sandbank Community Development Trust regarding speeding issues and traffic management in and around the Sandbank area. 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Community Planning Partnership note the update on the initial meeting between the SCDT, local residents, local elected members and Council officers. 3. Background Sandbank and specifically the A815 at Shore Road has had several serious and fatal road crashes over the last few years. Any serious crash which results in the road being closed causes issues locally for traffic as there are no diversions and effectively the road is a life line route which the local community believe should have a speed reduction on.
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4. Detail The meeting held on 30 May 2024 went over issues raised via the community as below: - General condition of the roads and pavements N+S officers explained that we currently have a Capital budget of £8M to manage all roads and pavements in the Argyll and Bute Area, there is an accepted method of identifying roads via an external Road Condition Index as well as a local input from our Operations Colleagues which ensures best value for our budget. For this years budget we also discussed this with local elected members who agreed the programme of works. Whilst this may seem like a lot of money we have a back log maintenance figure in excess of £120M to repair our roads and pavement infrastructure. Whilst we would like to repair all of pour roads and pavements we simply do not have the budget to do this, - Speed limits, including the stretch between Sandhaven and the Cot House. Should this be 40mph? An expansive discussion took place around this point and it was highlighted that we have looked at this previously and Police Scotland had objected to the reduction in speed. Any change to speed limits must fit within the criteria of our Speed Framework Policy and also effectively self-police so that we do not need to rely on Police Scotland to attend and carry out enforcement patrols. An action was passed to the SCDT to provide further evidence to allow N+S officers to speak with Police Scotland and look at another speed survey for the area. - Lack of speeding deterrents along the Shore Road – e.g speed camera, digital signs showing actual vehicle speeds This was discussed along with the above and it was highlighted that there is no evidence of speed being a factor in any of the crashes on this stretch of the road over the last 5 years. SCDT were given an action to provide more details from a local viewpoint to gather evidence to potentially allow another speed survey and thereafter discussions around what could be progressed here. - Debris from timber lorries on roads and pavements This was discussed and noted by N+S officers who agreed to speak with our Operations staff and if we could identify who was responsible we would make contact with the relevant company. - Speeding along the Shore Road late at night This was covered in the 3rd bullet point above. - On road parking on Shore Road and High Road, both of which are relatively narrow roads.
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There is a new Pavement Parking Law being introduced, this will be monitored and if there are breaches of the legislation then this will be enforced where appropriate. It was also discussed that if any vehicles were causing an unnecessary obstruction then this should be reported to Police Scotland. - There are no pedestrian crossings in the village. Consideration could be given to a zebra crossing between the shops and the bus shelter/public toilets N+S Officers agreed to look at this, however there were specific criteria to allow a new crossing to be placed on our road network as this had to be balanced with the current traffic arrangements and what may happen if a crossing is introduced. 5. Conclusions 5.1 Further detail is required from the local community to provide the evidence required to allow further consideration regarding any speed change or engineering works. This will be progressed initially through the SCDT and details provided to ABC officers. 6. CPP Outcomes Does your report relate to any of the following: Outcome Tick as appropriate (√) Community Wellbeing √ Housing Transport Infrastructure √ For further information please contact: Nigel Potts. Traffic and Development Officer Bute and Cowal Stuart Watson. Asst Network and Standards Manager Hugh O’Neill. Network and Standards Manager