ECCLESHALL PARISH COUNCIL – TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE – Wednesday, April 3^rd 2024

A meeting of the Traffic Management Committee was held on Wednesday, April 3^rd at Eccleshall Community Centre at 7.00 pm, preceding a meeting of the Planning Committee.

Present were:-

Councillor P. Jones (Chair)                             Councillor S. Perren

Councillor D. Hall                                              Councillor R. Langford

Councillor G. Dale                                             Councillor A. Reid

Councillor D. Hill                                               Councillor M. Gosling

Mrs S. J. Worden (Clerk)

14 members of the public.

1).    Apologies:-

Apologies were received from Cllrs. Ryan-Bloor, Taylor and Wilkins.

2).   Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2024:-

The minutes, which had previously been noted by the Council were agreed and signed.

3).   Parking:-

• To receive response from Highways regarding feasibility of options to improve parking and traffic flow and consider any follow up actions:

Members received the feedback from Staffordshire County Council relating to suggestions for options to improve the central area with regards to parking and traffic flow. This included changes to parking duration in the High Street, visibility splay changes at the mini roundabout, signage to indicate slow tractor traffic and provision of marked disabled parking spaces and bay marking for other spaces.  It was advised that signage and alterations to splays were not feasible/unsuitable, and the suggestions for parking would involve costs in order to change the current regulations in force as well as costs for markings, and that the number of parking spaces may be reduced due to the minimum requirements for bay sizes. However, linked to item 4 was an invitation to meet with an SCC engineer to discuss other concerns, and members agreed this would be an opportunity to further discuss these ideas.

• To initiate a longer-term project to build a vision for our town centre over the next 10-20 years, including parking and traffic flows, cycling and paths, the High Street as a destination and better local service infrastructure:

Members discussed this and noted that the vision must be supported and in conjunction with local authorities who had the authority, funding and resources to take action, for example a large scale project to deliver a car park. It was resolved to form a working group to work on this, consisting of councillors Langford, Perren, Hall, Hill, Reid, Gosling and Dale.

4).    To receive any feedback from the Staffordshire County Council review of the pedestrian crossing and to nominate councillor(s) to attend a site visit with County Council representatives to discuss concerns:

SCC have offered to meet with representatives on site to review the concerns. The clerk will arrange a site meeting date with the SCC Community Traffic Management Officer, SCC engineer, and an E.ON representative to discuss the concerns with the pedestrian crossing and to raise the queries as mentioned in minute item 3. Councillors Reid, Perren, Dale and Hill expressed an interest in attending.

5).   Correspondence

No correspondence was received.

6).    Items for the next meeting

Any items for the next meeting can be forwarded to the Clerk. Cllr. Reid will provide an updated speed camera report.

7).   Date of next meeting:- 3^rd July 2024, 7pm.

There being no further business, the Chairman declared the meeting closed at 7.31pm.