Hurst Village Society suggests new measures to slow down drivers
ROAD chicanes, humps, rumble strips, speed cameras and traffic lights are all ideas suggested for a village that feels plagued by speeding vehicles.
The ideas are for key routes through Hurst that connect to Wokingham, Twyford, Winnersh, Reading and the motorways.
Hurst Village Society (HVS) revealed its traffic calming framework to Hurst Parish Council and residents last week.
Society chairman Jo Newbold said afterwards: “We need to make Hurst a safer place for residents and road users and we hope this is the start of the wider conversation.
“We are taking a more holistic approach … and trying to ensure drivers get consistent and ever increasing messages that they’re entering a village as they get closer to the centre.
“We need to make Hurst safer for residents and road users and we hope this is the start of the wider conversation … If residents want it we will find a way of improving things. It does come down to money but there are options. We’re not making proposals, it’s up to the village.”
Within an area a mile from the duck pond HVS believes that all roads could be 30mph, instead of 30, 40 and 60mph. Three extra roadside entrance gates are suggested.
“Trying to change speed limits is horrendous, but it should not deter us as a village if the will is there for us to try,” said Mrs Newbold. “We’re not aware of a serious accident involving a pedestrian but we don’t want that to happen.”
Closer into the village centre ideas include single lane chicanes on the A321. Near the centre suggestions include rumble strips and a zebra crossing on the A321, humps on School and Orchard Roads, cameras on Lodge Road and the A321, and traffic lights to make Church Hill near The Castle single lane.
HVS hopes to publish examples of the ideas on its website before Christmas and will seek members’ and other villagers’ views. Society committee member Andrew Wilson studied villages across the country for the document.
HVS asked the parish council for its views by the council’s March meeting. But the council said that the document should go to Hurst’s Neighbourhood Plan team who produce reports on Hurst ecology, landscape, housing, highways and transport.
The team is seeking professional advice from highways and transport experts, said council chair Wayne Smith, after the council meeting. The plan will look at how to improve the village and keep its character.
All villagers would be asked what they think of the plan. Later, they could vote in a referendum on it. It would then go to a government planning department inspector, he said.
Village society chair Mrs Newbold was concerned that the neighbourhood plan would not be finished until late in 2023, or possibly 2024. But she paid tribute to the parish council’s work.
“The parish council, Wayne and other members have spent a lot of time on the speeding issues,” she said.
“We don’t under estimate all the work that has been done.”
The parish council has its own speed measuring device. Speeds recorded are sent to the police who do their own checks.
Cllr Smith took up residents’ concerns when a midnight hit and run driver hit cottages at Church Hill in August.
Cllr Mac Stephenson presented a petition signed by nearly 500 people to the borough council asking for better Church Hill safety.