PARWICH.ORG

Further to the recent correspondence which the Parish Council has had with the Traffic and Road Safety Service of Derbyshire County Council you may wish to read their latest response. It’s not at all supportive of the wishes of the village as expressed by our Parish Council. It’s quite a long response when really they could have just said no we don’t want to spend any money on you (how much do a few signs with 20 painted on them cost?, or false road narrowing gates at the entrance to the village like Brassingon?)

Thank you for your additional comments on this matter. I shall respond to your comments sequentially.

I acknowledge your Council’s view towards the installation of a 20mph zone. As previously mentioned, we follow local and national official advice which recommends the use of 30mph zones in normal rural village circumstances.

For information, a 20mph restriction may be brought into effect in two ways: by introducing a “20mph zone” where speeds are managed by widespread traffic calming measures rather than the installation of speed limit repeater signs; or a “20mph limit” where regularly-placed repeater signs are installed instead of calming measures. Both methods would have a significant visual effect on the built environment, arguably even more so than the proposal of the 30mph repeater signs since measures would also be required through the very centre of the village. I note your view that you consider this to be the most appropriate way to improve road safety in the village, however, a recent report published by the Department for Transport would seem to indicate that 20mph speed limits provide very limited benefit in terms of road safety. Their case studies show a reduction to the recorded average speed of less than 1mph and no evidence to suggest that there has been any reductions in collisions and casualties. This would tally with a trial that Derbyshire County Council has carried out at Padfield, High Peak, where a reduction of 1mph has been achieved, but, the personal injury collision record went up from 0 to 3.

I would confirm that in view of your comments I have withdrawn the works order for the installation of the 30mph speed limit repeater signing from this year’s programme. Whilst I would maintain that such signing would have had a positive effect in reducing actual traffic speeds, I acknowledge your reasons for not wanting us to progress this proposal. I would however remind you that any signed speed limit is to be considered as a maximum rather than an aspiration and that drivers should always be expected to exercise their responsibility to drive to the road and weather conditions presented before them. It should also be noted that the lack of 30mph repeater signs could affect Police enforcement of the speed limit.

I accept that the built environment is much unchanged over several hundred years, however this is the case in many villages especially throughout the Dales and High Peak areas. Such narrow, confined village layouts tend to have the effect of moderating driver speeds to well below 30mph although in the case of Parwich, this may not be so much the case towards the more open outer edges of the village; this is where the proposed 30mph repeater signing would have served a specific purpose to address such issues.

I appreciate that residents will frequently travel from place to place through the village on foot. Along the narrower sections of the main road, drivers are expected to travel at a speed commensurate to the narrow, winding nature of the road and with the expectation in mind that pedestrians may be present. Side roads are generally yet more restrictive in width resulting in more controlled speeds. Given the vast majority of drivers using these side roads in particular will be local, some level of greater respect to the local conditions is to be expected.

I fully acknowledge that your Council and residents raise valid concerns towards safety in the village. I must however emphasise that in view of the very limited resources available to this Department, we are having to focus our attention more than ever towards locations throughout the County where injury related collisions are already happening. I would assure you that throughout the county, measures are frequently implemented within small communities in order to address incidents which have been documented by Derbyshire Police. Their records indicate that no such incidents have taken place along the main road through Parwich in at least the past ten years. On the subject of collisions, I would like to bring to your attention the Derby and Derbyshire Annual Casualty Report 2017 produced jointly by Derbyshire County Council and Derby and Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership: https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/transport-roads/road-safety/road-safety.aspx. The report highlights the continual good work the County Council are doing in reducing casualties on the network which, for 2017, was, we believe, the lowest recorded since the end of the Second World War. Also collisions where people were killed or seriously injured were the lowest of this 72 year period.

I have noted the request for the installation of a children playing sign near the playground. I am previously unaware of an issue of this type although I am somewhat concerned to hear that the safety issues arise in part due to limited supervision. I shall look into this request in the new financial year when resources may become available to consider warning signing to this effect.

With regard to physical traffic calming measures, Derbyshire County Council has ratified criteria contained within the Derby and Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership’s Speed Management Protocol which assists engineers in determining what measures are appropriate in a particular location. This ensures a transparent and consistent approach countywide. Having referred to this document, this section of road does not qualify for intervention measures such as speed humps or other such traffic calming measures. As previously indicated, such measures can only now be considered for locations which are experiencing serious ongoing and unacceptable safety issues.