1Good evening everyone.
2My name's Phil Sutton, and I'm chairman of the Highways Committee.
3We've called this meeting to inform members of the public
4about the new regulations for traffic and parking we're proposing for Granford.
5I'll start by summarising these changes before we open the meeting to questions.
6So, why do we need to make these changes to traffic systems in Granford?
7Well, we're very aware that traffic is becoming an increasing problem.
8It's been especially noticeable with the increase in heavy traffic while they've been building the new hospital.
9But it's the overall rise in the volume of traffic of all kinds that's concerning us.
10To date there's not been any increase in traffic accidents,
11but that's not something we want to see happen, obviously.
12We recently carried out a survey of local residents,
13and their responses were interesting.
14People were very concerned about the lack of visibility on some roads
15due to cars parked along the sides of the roads.
16We'd expected complaints about the congestion near the school
17when parents are dropping off their children or picking them up,
18but this wasn't top of the list,
19and nor were noise and fumes from trucks and lorries,
20though they were mentioned by some people.
21We think these new traffic regulations would make a lot of difference.
22But we still have a long way to go.
23We've managed to keep our proposals within budget, just, so they can be covered by the Council.
24But, of course, it's no good introducing new regulations
25if we don't have a way of making sure that everyone obeys them,
26and that's an area we're still working on with the help of representatives from the police force.
27OK, so this slide shows a map of the central area of Granford,
28with the High Street in the middle and School Road on the right.
29Now, we already have a set of traffic lights in the High Street at the junction with Station Road,
30but we're planning to have another set at the other end, at the School Road junction,
31to regulate the flow of traffic along the High Street.
32We've decided we definitely need a pedestrian crossing.
33We considered putting this on School Road, just outside the school,
34but in the end we decided that could lead to a lot of traffic congestion
35so we decided to locate it on the High Street, crossing the road in front of the supermarket.
36That's a very busy area, so it should help things there.
37We're proposing some changes to parking.
38At present, parking isn't allowed on the High Street outside the library,
39but we're going to change that, and allow parking there,
40but not at the other end of the High Street near School Road.
41There'll be a new 'No Parking' sign on School Road,
42just by the entrance to the school, forbidding parking for 25 metres.
43This should improve visibility for drivers and pedestrians,
44especially on the bend just to the north of the school.
45As far as disabled drivers are concerned,
46at present they have parking outside the supermarket,
47but lorries also use those spaces,
48so we've got two new disabled parking spaces on the side road up towards the bank.
49It's not ideal, but probably better than the present arrangement.
50We also plan to widen the pavement on School Road.
51We think we can manage to get an extra half metre on the bend just before you get to the school,
52on the same side of the road.
53Finally, we've introduced new restrictions on loading and unloading for the supermarket,
54so lorries will only be allowed to stop there before 8 am.
55That's the supermarket on School Road -
56we kept to the existing arrangements with the High Street supermarket.
57OK. So that's about it...