Widened roundabout is ‘not fit for purpose’
A WIDENED roundabout is not fit for purpose according to a Shinfield councillor.
And road schemes designed to alleviate congestion in the village have not helped, he added.
Cllr Jim Frewin, Independent councillor for Shinfield South, has blasted Wokingham Borough Council’s road schemes, warning that there have been some near misses at the roundabout that connects School Green with the A327 Arborfield Road.
But the council has defended the numerous schemes within the village, which include a new relief road that links to the University of Reading’s Science Park with the Black Boy Roundabout.
It is understood that the council is also hoping to improve bus services within Shinfield Parish.
Cllr Frewin argued that road use within the village has been reaching saturation point.
“It’s also about past investment,” he said. “The Eastern Relief Road, which goes from the Black Boy Roundabout to Arborfield Road provides access to the University of Reading science park, but it’s widened the village boundary ready to be filled with houses.
“It's not done much to alleviate the traffic issues.
“And there are three pinch points on the Black Boy Roundabout. There’s the road towards Crosfields School and Reading which cannot be widened. There’s the Lower Earley Way which is already at capacity, and there’s the road going down to Junction 11 which can’t be widened either.
“That roundabout is not fit for purpose.
“I’ve had the highway department out to look at it and they’ve stood there and watched a number of near misses when it comes to collisions.
“But they just kept saying ‘it works by design’.”
Wokingham Borough Council issued a statement, stating that the numerous housing developments, which have seen nearly 4,000 homes approved or in the planning process for the parish, is being phased to ensure appropriate transport links can be built.
“The current Local Plan (Core Strategy) was adopted in 2010 and anticipated 2,500 new homes in this strategic development location,” read the statement.
“That plan allowed us to strategically plan the growth to 2026 tomitigate the impact by collecting £30,000-£40,000 from each new home and converting this into infrastructure provision; prior to that we were securing around £5,000 per home.”
The money enables road schemes including the Eastern Relief Road, the Arborfield Cross Relief Road, improvements to local junctions, greenway enhancements, a new sports hub, two primary schools, a My Journey travel plan and a comprehensive public transport strategy which a council spokesperson said would include a sustainable bus link connecting Shinfield and Spencers Wood, at a rate of three buses per hour.
“Background traffic growth and congestion has continued because of the travel choices we all make, a fact which has become very clear on the roads during Covid-19,” they said, adding: “Every planning application submitted is required to demonstrate that it can mitigate all of its impacts, including transport.”
And the council asks all developers to demonstrate what they can do to mitigate impact on the environment, including transport.
They promised: “The Local Plan Update will identify the required mitigation measures needed to progress development. As you point out congestion is however something which pre-existed our plans; the planning system is not however able to address pre-existing conditions such as this but as I have said we do plan the infrastructure to benefit all residents.”
And in a bid to improve public transport, the council is in discussionswith Reading Buses to provide additional bus stops on Hyde End Road, while the Leopard 8 route is “fully funded by developer funding”.