Kensbends pinch points on the Burley Road

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Correspondence with elected officials.

16 September 2010

To: Councillor Ken Thornber, by e-mail.
Mrs Maureen Holding, New Forest District Council.
Mrs M G Patterson, Secretary to The Brockenhurst Parish Council

Dear Sir or Madam,

Re- the pinch point being placed in front of my house,
“Lindfield”, on the Burley Road in Brockenhurst.

The attached letter is self explanatory. (This is the first letter to Hampshire CC - top of link HCC )

I would like to understand how the situation came about that, as a local resident significantly affected by one of these pinch points, I knew nothing about it until the work had started.

Please can you explain how such a far reaching decision is made so rapidly and with so little consultation or dissemination of information?

Please could you also make available to me, or tell me how I can access, then direct me to, all relevant minute items.

If a “South Weirs Action Group” is referred to, I assume that the term is used as convenient shorthand for a group of people. For each occasion that the term is used, please will you define who these persons were for that minute item, and give their addresses.

Yours faithfully, Allan Hendry.

E-mail 2nd November 2010

Dear Councillor Thornber,
I understand that you made a statement to the Brockenhurst Parish Council meeting on Tuesday 19th October which I will paraphrase as follows:
"my officers would never install something which would introduce a road hazard, and I think they are installed shallowly or designed to break off so to be safe, but I will have to check on this and get back to you."
I watched these posts being put in, and can assure you that below the apparent 130mm holding of tarmac, they are then embedded solidly in concrete. Why were you not aware of this?
Allan Hendry.

My letter in the Lymington Times, 26th November.

SIR,
How do organisations reach decisions? Proposals may start by being discussed at length, informally and semi-formally. But the final authorisation is always a formal and recorded step. There will be escalating authority required according to the nature of what is proposed, and its cost.
When I started my web site, ‘kensbends’, about the Burley Road pinch points, I wanted to find out what due process had brought them about. Regardless of its merit or otherwise, this scheme has distinct features. It is the only traffic calming measure in Hampshire to be justified solely on the grounds of accidents involving animals. With a total of nine pairs of pinch points, it is a very large scheme. Also, the pinch points themselves are uniquely massively constructed, placed so they are directly opposing, and they are un-prioritised. Finally, they were expensive. Taken together, these features take the Burley Road scheme well outside the previous envelope of decisions about traffic calming. The chartered civil engineer who wrote to me asked, “Why has this particular stretch of road been given this brutal approach?”
I have spent many hours searching through on-line minutes of council meetings, sub-committee meetings, and through the various documents presented to these meetings. I have made phone calls and sent e-mails and letters. Those I have sent to our District and County elected representatives are unacknowledged and unanswered. So, after all this, I have discovered absolutely nothing about how this pinch point scheme was authorised.
This scheme is not just an extension to or a copy of something existing, or a routine decision in accordance with normal procedure. It goes well beyond that. This was a significant, expensive, and possibly precedent-setting, extension of previous practice. It also resulted in structures being placed in a designated Area of Special Character.
So who is making these decisions, who are they accountable to, and why does nothing seem to be on record? The complete silence of our senior elected representatives is disturbing. Is this our new ‘big society’? Seems like something else.
Allan Hendry, Burley Road, Brockenhurst.

Lymington Times 26/11/2010.

E-mail from Malcolm Graveling to Mel Kendal: Friday, Nov 26, 2010 2:26 PM.
Subject: Brockenhurst pinch points

Reading the letter in the Lymington Times under the above heading I saw in your response that there were," continued requests and substantial support ", for the pinch points. Is it possible that you could provide me with data to support this statement. I live in Brockenhurst and as yet have met no one who supports them.
Malcolm Graveling, Bryanston, Rhinefield Road.

E-mail from Dr Bernard Bedford to Mel Kendal : Fri 26/11/2010 14:42.
Subject: Brockenhurst Pinch Points.

Dear Councillor Kendal,
I was amazed to read in today's Lymington Times that "these discussions were not formally recorded." "A report of the trial will be produced" along with an evaluation of the response to the trial.
How can you conduct a trial if nothing was written down? Who will remember in 2 years time what the question was, what parameters were being measured, exactly what comparisons were being made, what degree of change was being required to show statistical significance and exclude randomness, and how side effects (e.g. accidents involving cyclists and motorists) are to be monitored and weighted?
When you look at the New Forest maps for 2008 and 2009 showing sites of animal accidents, the number of accidents in the "pinch point area" is quite small, especially compared with Picket Post, for example, and the Hythe to Lymington road. I do not deny that all animal accidents matter, but also change should not cause more serious unintended consequences.
"critical difference." When there are few, a difference of 1 or 2 makes a huge percentage (but not necessarily statistically significant) change. The fact that the number of traffic accidents to animals in the Forest in 2008 and 2009 were around the all time low suggests to me that the Burley Road deaths may have been a random cluster as opposed to significant change. Could you tell me what figures are being used to measure change in this "trial?"
At the most basic are we talking about change compared with the long term mean number of animal accidents for this stretch of road, or change compared with the recent cluster, which would be farcical as randomness in numbers over time always regresses to the mean? (Which also
explains the apparent benefit of a proportion of, but certainly not all, speed cameras.)
Yours sincerely Dr B Bedford.

I have since had an e-mail from Dr Bedford in which he says:
"I used to be quite fond of watching statistical abuse by the pharmaceutical industry. I think it's important that statistical flaws in the "trial" are illuminated at the beginning rather than the end?"

17 December 2010 to the Clerk to the Brockenhurst Parish Council.

Re- pinch points on the Burley Road.

I was hoping to speak to you before I sent this, because I was not sure of procedure, but there is now not time before the next council meeting, so I hope it is correctly presented.
I had assumed that the minutes of the meeting held on 19th October would be circulated after approval at the meeting on 16th November. However, as they were not then put on council web site, I e-mailed you on 8th December, and you kindly e-mailed me a copy. Thank you.
My reason for looking at the minutes is that at the 19th October meeting, Councillor Thornber was asked about the apparently rigid mounting of the wooden posts in the pinch points. He stated that he believed they were not mounted so as to create a road hazard, but installed shallowly or designed to break off so as to be safe. However, he undertook to check on this and inform the council. Please forgive me if the words are not recalled word-perfectly.
I notice that this is not recorded in the minutes. I don’t know whether the council minutes can include an action on a person who is not a member of the council. Maybe not. Regardless of this, I believe the minutes should show that this discussion took place, so that parish residents can know what assurance was then given.
Can I assume that you will present this as correspondence to the council meeting on 21st December?

Thank you. Allan Hendry, Burley Road.

From: Kendal, Cllr M J To: Malcolm Graveling
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 2:52 PM. Subject: RE: Brockenhurst pinch points

Dear Mr Graveling
Thank you for your email. We appear to be going round in circles. In the hope of bringing this matter to finality may I advise you as follows.
What the petition clearly indicated was that many people were concerned about animal deaths due to excessive speed along the road in question. Where motorists ignore a speed of limit of 40 miles per hour, logic suggests that in the absence of anything else they are unlikely to obey a speed limit of 30 miles per hour.
Our general approach on relatively straight country roads, such as this, is guided by three principles, they are engineering, education and enforcement. Getting the balance between these three right is not an exact science, particularly when cost is taken into account. We applied the same principles to the Village 30/Choose 30 campaign throughout Hampshire with some success. In the case of the approach to Brockenhurst it is difficult to know exactly how to create the correct balance, but the engineering trial will provide greater awareness and help educate motorists. This will be reinforced with enforcement at some stage by the Police. Only at the end of the trial period will we know if we have got the balance correct and, if not, we may make changes to either the engineering or the enforcement issue.
In the meanwhile I am content to let the trial run its course until further notice, accepting that modifications may be necessary as we go along.
With kind regards. Yours sincerely

Councillor Melville Kendal Executive Member for Environment

Letter to Cllr Thornber from Mr Graham Swetman on Jan 5 2011.

Dear Councillor Thornber,

Traffic Pinches in Burley Road

I suspect I am not the first to write to you about this traffic calming scheme, but I wish to make you aware that there is another local family who is unhappy with what has been done.
The presence of ponies and cattle on the Burley Road has always provided a danger to traffic, and I submit that the pinches render the road even more dangerous to traffic. They are hard to see at night, and if the road is flooded (which happens several times a year in the Armstrong Road area), or covered with snow, the high curbs can be invisible. I have already heard of two minor accidents where drivers have not seen these high curbs.
I am aware that similar pinches are often used in city locations. Where this is the case, they are often illuminated by a nearby lamppost, so the obstruction is clearly visible. No such lighting exists here. The pinch posts themselves are of very solid construction, and represent a considerable hazard to any vehicle hitting them – far more dangerous than a pony impact. Further, there are no signs indicating vehicle priority at the pinch points – a recipe for head-on collisions.
If there is concern about pony deaths, surely the answer is to follow the practice in 99% of the country, and fence off the road? I believe the value of a pony at the Beaulieu sales recently has been about 10 guineas. It is a sad reflection on our society that people are prepared to risk human life for an animal with so little value. Where are these people’s sense of values?
I am also surprised to find that funding was available for this ill-considered project in a time of severe financial stringency. At a time when education budgets are being cut, and our defence capability severely impaired, why were funds made available for this?
The action of the Highways Department has made a dangerous road more dangerous, and I urge you to re-consider the decision to install the pinches. It is only a matter of time before a serious accident occurs, exposing the Council to litigation.

Request Under the Freedom of Information Act, 2000. In order that I may achieve a better understanding of the Council’s thinking in this matter, please provide a copy of the minutes of the Council meeting at which the decision was made, and the supporting risk assessment.

Yours sincerely, Graham Swetman.

My letter to the Lymington Times, Friday 14th January 2011.

From: Kendal, Cllr M J To: Malcolm Graveling
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 4:44 PM Subject: RE: Brockenhurst pinch points

Dear Mr Graveling,

Thank you for your email.
Let me put it this way: millions of people ask for a 1/4 inch drill bit each year, not because they want the drill bit , but because they want a 1/4 inch hole.
People who ask for a new lower speed limit do not just want signs. They want us to try to reduce traffic speeds.
This trial , given time, will tell whether the suggested engineering works reduces the speed back to safer levels along that stretch of road. For all we know, they may need modification . In the meanwhile motorists who obey the existing speed limit will find the pinch point easy to negotiate safely. I trust this clarifies my view.
kind regards mel kendal

Tuesday 25th January. This response is sent on behalf of Councillor Melville Kendal, Executive Member for Environment

Dear Dr Bedford

I have now had the opportunity to look into the queries you have raised.

The trial will be assessed by comparing 'before' and 'after' data, as well as considering the comments we have received from residents and other members of the public.

The Verderers have provided details of animal accidents going back to 2005 covering the section of Burley Road with the pinch-points. We have data on personal injury accidents involving motor vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists going back many years which is provided by Hampshire Police. Four speed surveys were also undertaken at different locations along Burley Road in May and June 2009. I am advised that three of the surveys were carried out using automatic equipment and one survey was carried out using a hand held radar gun (due to a lack of street furniture on which to attach automatic survey equipment). New speed surveys will be carried out shortly at the same locations and using the same equipment. We will also carry out further speed surveys in May/June 2011.

All the data we collect will be available to the public, including any calculations we make for comparison purposes. It is unlikely that we will quote any percentage changes for the reasons you have raised. Since only a relatively short period of time will have passed following the introduction of the pinch-points when it is reviewed, it is acknowledged that we will not be able to state, with complete certainty, that the scheme will have reduced accidents (if there is a reduction). However, since the trial will need to be reviewed before too long the data will still be useful in the decision-making process.

Yours sincerely

This response is sent on behalf of Councillor Melville Kendal, Executive Member for Environment.

Subject:	Burley Road Pinch-Points
Date:	Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:41:59 -0000
From:	Andrews, Wendy <wendy.andrews@hants.gov.uk>
To:	<bernard.bedford@tesco.net>

Dear Dr Bedford

I have now had the opportunity to look into the queries you have raised.

The trial will be assessed by comparing 'before' and 'after' data, as well as considering the comments we have received from residents and other members of the public.

Yours sincerely

This response is sent on behalf of Councillor Melville Kendal, Executive Member for Environment

From: Andrews, Wendy To: malcolmgraveling@yahoo.co.uk
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 3:28 PM Subject: Brockenhurst pinch points

Dear Mr Graveling

Thank you for your email dated 24 January 2011. Dealing firstly about your point regarding the degree of support I should mention that apart from those whom you mention there was support from the local elected Councillors and the Parish Council who suggested modifications to the scheme to increase its scope. In addition the National Park Authority and the Verderers have expressed their support of physical measures to reduce speed along that road.
All road safety guidance, including Governmental advice, indicates that this is a preferred approach to reducing speed, to simply that of reducing a speed limit. Indeed published guidance on the setting of speed limits recommends that 30 miles per hour speed limits should only be introduced where either the layout of the road prevents vehicles from travelling faster or where drivers can see a reason for the limit, which is the rationale behind the importance placed on the presence of sufficient frontage development. The absence of these is likely to mean there would be a high level of non-compliance with a lower limit unless other physical measures are also taken. The introduction of a Traffic Regulation Order for a reduced speed limit typically takes between six and nine months, possibly longer depending on the outcome of consultation. It will not be possible to provide a lower speed limit on an experimental or temporary basis. Advisory speed limits can only be used on a temporary basis and are meant to accompany road works so that drivers can identify a reason for the advisory limit.
Nevertheless I will be keeping the situation under review and at the end of the trial period, which will be at least one year to encompass all seasons, will evaluate the data and people's views compared with the 'before' situation. At that point we will also reconsider speed limits in conjunction with our planners and the Police Constabulary, whose advice up to now has been very firm on the need of engineering checks and education to bring speeds down before they are prepared to attempt enforcement.

In the absence of any further new information I propose to close the file on this correspondence as I believe I have now given you all the information I can.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Melville Kendal. Executive Member for Environment

E-mail to Cllr Thornber, Mon 24th Oct 2011. Also sent to Stuart Jarvis, HCC Head of Environment, and published as a letter in the Lymington Times of Oct 29th.

Dear Councillor Thornber,

I understand that a review of these pinch points is to be held. It is appropriate that I formally draw your attention to the full content of the web site www.hal-a.com/kensbends and its associated pages. This site contains the written concerns of over thirty local people about the pinch points. (Google - Burley Road pinch points.)
Many people also had concerns about the previous situation on the Burley Road. Below are suggestions of an alternative and I believe safer response to these issues. I do this as someone who has lived, cycled, and walked children to school on, ridden horses across, and driven on, this road over the last twenty-eight years.
It seemed the main problem area was the straight stretch down to the entrance to South Weirs. On the long downhill straight some drivers were undoubtedly going too quickly, towards the hazard of an angled side track, being South Weirs, and several dwelling accesses.
Some traffic calming measures were justified here, and, if anything, something more successful than the present measures. The long straight stretch remains down the centre, and some drivers are still going very quickly in light traffic. So possible changes are:
The three points making up the calming on this straight should be by extensions from alternate sides of the road. Not only would this eliminate the straight line, but it would leave room for a cycle track behind the posts, so no cyclist would have to confront oncoming traffic or pull out in front of following vehicles at a pinch point. With this, there should be clearly marked traffic priorities, according to which side the extensions are on. This would avoid the conflicts and uncertainties of the present arrangement.
There is no need for the posts to be of such solid construction as to almost inevitably cause serious injury or death should a motorcyclist, perhaps not even though their own fault, strike one. They need to be visible; there is no reason why they should be dangerous.
I believe the point near the brow of the hill at the west end serves no purpose and simply introduces potential danger.
A 30mph limit should start shortly before South Weirs. It is clearly justified. There is photographic evidence of this on the above web site. Beyond this lies the South Weirs junction, a phone box and houses near the road, and further on, riding stables. Increased visual justification for a speed limit could be achieved by moving the Brockenhurst sign out to this point.
If this limit is appropriately enforced, there is nothing whatsoever special about the accident record or nature of the Burley Road beyond this point which justifies the potential extra danger of the other pinch points.
So far, two cars have been written off, a cyclist seriously injured and two animals killed, yet success is being claimed. Intransigence in the face of such incidents, and warnings from responsible and expert local people, until someone is very badly injured or killed, would be criminal.

Yours sincerely, Allan Hendry.

This letter was acknowledged on 27th Oct, advising me that my suggestions would be evaluated by traffic engineers.
This letter drew a fuller response from Stuart Jarvis, Head of Highways, to see click HCC. My reply, dated 2nd Dec, to this was:

Dear Mr Jarvis,
Pinch points in Burley Road, Brockenhurst. Your ref. PG/MS/2153709

Thank you for your letter of 9th November. I appreciate this considered reply and will post it on the web site www.hal-a.com/kensbends.aspx unless you instruct otherwise. I accept the facts as you state them, but would make the following observations.

Very few conclusions can be reached by comparing data on infrequently occurring events. With my letter to you of 24th December 2012, I attached the text of a letter Dr Bernard Bedford originally sent to Cllr Kendall, saying, “At the most basic are we talking about change compared with the long term mean number of accidents for this stretch of road, or change compared with the recent cluster, which would be farcical, as randomness in such numbers over time always regresses to the mean.”
Dr Bedford is well experienced in such matters, having grappled with medical statistics having the same characteristics, such as child leukemia clusters.

Your comments about speed limits do not seem to recognize the points I made on the web site, or the associated photographs. You will have great difficulty persuading me, or I suspect most motorists, that the average speed of vehicles at the point where there is now a 30mph sign on the A337 to the north of Brockenhurst was previously anywhere near 30mph.

The third and by far the most important point, is that all these charts, statistics, slight reductions in speeds, and our traded opinions will be as nothing if someone suffers fatal or life-changing injuries as a result of these unnecessarily solid obstacles.

Yours faithfully, Allan Hendry.

I have to add that during the course of writing this letter I heard a loud noise outside. It was yet another collision at the pinch points, the third and fourth vehicles to be written off. Photo herewith.
I feel that it is inevitable that one day I will go outside to find someone badly injured. If reluctance to recognise there is a problem is due to someone’s ego, then they are carrying a great responsibility.

cc: Cllr Thornber.

This did draw a response from Cllr Thornber.

Dear Mr Hendry

I was content with the reply my Director of Economy, Transport and Environment gave you in his letter of 9 November until I saw your further letter.

As my Director and I have said, we shall review the success or otherwise, of the traffic calming measures we have put in place. The results of that assessment will guide us as to the permanence or otherwise, of the pinch points.

You have sent to me a photograph of the most ‘recent’ collision of cars and I note that this was in daylight and visibility was good. I can only assume that this is yet another example of driver behaviour. It is this behaviour, in the context of accidents to our animals and indeed, to the public, that we have installed these pinch points.

While I understand Dr Bedford’s medical statistical expertise, nevertheless whether accidents regress to the mean or not, one accident is one accident too many and it is this that has prompted the Road Safety Team here at Hampshire County Council to take the action it did, because we do have a statutory responsibility.

Yours sincerely, Ken Thornber, Leader