Post by mattmw on Apr 29, 2016 12:57:32 GMT 1
Highlights from the Transport Assessment
The Stor Car Park will have 142 spaces and these will be time limited to 90 minutes.
Description o9f Super Blues Way (LOL)
“A traffic-free pedestrian route runs to the west of the development site, and along the western boundary
of the STFC stadium, however the footpath is more of an informal route with gravel surfacing and the
path is not directly lit.”
As far as I can tell all the information on the stadium was based on a survey of a game here only 4,959 people attended a match. A little lower than our average attendance and a weakness in the document.
Interesting stuff on existing parking. We could only originally have 1 space per 15 seats – 658. Town recently got permission to extend this to 1000 spaces, quite the increase. The planning application TA waves this off saying its not proposed to be implemented imminently, but I’m under the impression this will be done this summer. Again a weakness in the TA as it then has a baseline of the maximum number of vehicle trying to leave the car park on a match day way lower than could be the case with a 1000 space car park.
I would agree no grounds for the development to be stopped on highways safety terms based on existing records of accidents.
The Site Access Proposals
• Reconfiguration of the existing mini roundabout in accordance with DMRB standards – Basically this would be a bigger more formal roundabout (24m wide) – This would be over the location of the existing gate, but there is no evidence as to where that gate would move to, and how car parking operations as they currently are could be monitored.
• Addition of a fourth arm on the roundabout to provide access to the food store which results in the loss of two of the marked coach spaces
• Relocation of the existing pedestrian crossing point on the Stadium Access Road to the north of the roundabout and revised access route into the stadium area for pedestrians and cyclists – This will result with a formal “lighted” crossing on the stadium access road. No evidence as to the impacts this may cause are included within the TA.
• Provision of a shared pedestrian / cycle access into the site off the Stadium Access Road as well as a pedestrian access point from the B4380 Oteley Road
• Relocation of existing gates on the Stadium Access Road so that they do not impact on the operation of the mini-roundabout – As I said no evidence of where these would be located to and how the town would be able to have a closed off stadium with how these proposals are presented.
• Installation of appropriate signage on the approaches to the mini-roundabout to direct users of the stadium, food store and 3G pitches.
I would note however that “The access proposals will be subject to more detailed discussions and review with stakeholders including SC Highways and the football club at the post application stage to agree highway layout” – Bit of a dodge as this means none of the above is fixed, the applicant and the town can have a further say. I would have thought though that this could have been sorted at this up front stage, its key to the determination and SC should really be sure this will all work.
Ok so the assessment of the impact of the trips. This has been done for two periods Friday PM Peak hour and strangely Saturday 12-1pm. There is no formal impact of the STFC Match day peaks… it is considered in the paragraph below
It is considered that the majority of Lidl customers will not seek to access the proposed development by car during the peak periods on a matchday (1400-1500 for arrivals and 1630-1730 for departures), with home matches taking place approximately every two weeks. As a consequence, this will lead to a degree of peak spreading on a matchday in terms of trips associated with the Lidl store so that shoppers avoid the football traffic. As such the existing peak hour flows on a Saturday matchday represent a worst case situation in terms of the development traffic impact.
As such the TA cannot give us any evidence of this will affect the access egress of people to the stadium at the busy times. It simply can’t.
No detailed assessment of the roundabout or the signalised junction at the end of the access road has been undertaken. Just a series of assumptions as to why could happen. Again that’s pretty weak.
My view. Its probably gets approval on highways terms, SC will probably discount most of the issues I raised above if they believe the weak justification, and don’t care about potential impacts on football fans 24 games a year.
It gives SC the ability to make a determination, but as a fan, or a STFC car park user, it does not answer one single question as to what the impacts might be on the time it takes me to arrive and depart the ground. Remember SC will not make determination on the impacts of how the internal STFC car parking arrangements are effected, just the impacts on the local highways network which are minimal. STFC have not objected to this (as they have money riding on it).
Does the report make mention of the planned improvements to the Meole Island for traffic, pedestrians and cyclists which Shropshire Council are developing? Would make sense to have the two schemes compliment each other, but I can't see mention of it in the plans