Highways

The mission statement for our Highways Group is:

“Keeping people safe on roads and footpaths while within Halton Parish”.

Footpath and Highway issues

Bucks CC are responsible for the A, B, and C class roads within Buckinghamshire. Motorways within Buckinghamshire (M4, M25, and M40), the A404(T), and the A40(T) from Denham into Hillingdon are the responsibility of the Highways Agency.

If you see any problems (potholes or other repairs) which need attention, please report them online here. Potholes requiring urgent attention should be reported by calling 01296 382416. Deep potholes are treated as an emergency.

Please provide as much detail as possible to identify the location and the problem e.g.

• Name of junctions or adjacent roads
• Landmarks such as outside no 23, house name, telegraph pole, or streetlight
• Landmarks such as bridges, pubs, bends in the road, etc.
• Where it is on the road such as edge, middle
• Estimated size and depth of the defect

Perch Bridge – Halton Lane Feasibility Study

In November 2019, Halton Parish Council Deputy Chairman emailed a submission, on behalf of Halton Parish Council (HPC), to the Local Area Forum mailbox. The submission sought to demonstrate that Perch Bridge situated on Halton Lane, Halton, represented a health and safety hazard to pedestrians and cyclists from Halton and Wendover due to its condition; its narrow nature; and the restricted views approaching it from both directions on Halton Lane.  Read the feasibility study here:

Perch Bridge – Halton Lane Wendover Feasibility Study

Halton MVAS Sign

The Parish Council takes road safety very seriously and some years ago invested in a technology called MVAS (Mobile Vehicle Activated Signs). Generally, these signs are used to improve road safety and encourage safer driving speeds through a very obvious visual reminder. However, our sign is also used for collecting traffic data (compliant with GDPR), logging vehicle movements, speeds, and time in three locations. This includes both incoming and outgoing movements.

In addition to enabling us to identify speeding issues, the MVAS gives us an established “traffic information baseline” from which we are able to then measure change. Some of the uses include:

• Trending traffic movements changes over time
• Information to enable the Parish Council to respond objectively to consultations for road closures or future changes to planned traffic routes
• Provides a greater understanding of the implications of additional traffic volumes which may be generated as a result of new housing developments in or around the Parish (pertinent to the closure of the RAF Halton base)

The Community Speedwatch Scheme

Community Speedwatch is a traffic monitoring scheme that is co-ordinated by the Thames Valley Police and Buckinghamshire County Council, but managed and run by volunteers in a community. Volunteers are trained to use a detection device to monitor the speeds of vehicles travelling through their local area. The registration numbers of speeding vehicles are recorded by the inbuilt camera which ensures that roadside volunteers take down the correct details to provide to the Police. Warning letters are then sent out by the Police to the registered keepers stating that their vehicle has been reported as speeding.

Halton Parish Council feels that there may be safety issues related to this scheme whereby volunteers could be exposed to abuse from passing drivers (as has been reported during similar Speedwatch schemes in this area). A decision has been taken to monitor feedback from other Parishes to establish if safety is still an issue.  If you would like to register as a future volunteer (six are required) then please contact the Parish Clerk.

Perch Bridge Weight Limit

Perch Bridge, which crosses the Wendover Arm Canal, has a weight limit of 7.5 tonnes. Recently there have been a number of sightings of buses and lorries crossing the bridge illegally. This puts the structural integrity of the bridge at risk and also represents a danger for other bridge users. If you spot an offender please report it to the Parish Clerk providing details (photographic if possible) of the time, registration number, make of vehicle, and company involved so that action can be taken.

The Parish Council commissioned Buckinghamshire Council to conduct a Feasibility Study to improve road safety around Perch Bridge, Halton Lane. 106. Perch Bridge. Perch Bridge is a narrow 19th century canal bridge which is not built to cope with the influx of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians that the new RAF Halton development will bring. New residents on the current Kermode Hall and Old Workshops sites will drive to Aylesbury and beyond along Halton Lane and over Perch bridge to avoid driving through Wendover or Weston Turville. There will not be enough room for two cars, cyclists and walkers to pass safely (access to the canal footpath is at the bridge). A relay system is the only safe option for this area which will become a dangerous pinch point. The canal bridge at Broughton Crossing received traffic lights to make crossing it safer with the increased traffic using it due to the Kingsbrooke development. Halton Parish Council requires the same level of investment, and traffic lights must be provided at this location to make it safe due to the increase in traffic volume.

• Pavement. Due to the increase in vehicles, cyclists and walkers that the new development at Halton will bring; a pavement for pedestrians should be created on both sides of Perch Bridge. A short stretch of pavement should be created between the bridge as far as High Moors, and to meet the pavement at Perch Meadow. A pavement should also be created on the Wendover side of the bridge to meet the footpath on Halton Lane. This will make it safer for drivers and pedestrians alike as the road is narrow, on a bend, and uphill from the Wendover direction; this causes drivers and pedestrians to have poor visibility of each other.

Main Point. The junction with Chestnut Avenue and the B4009 Upper Icknield Way will need to be addressed due to the extra volume of transport that the new development will bring. The majority of dwellings will have 2 cars which will result in 2,000 extra vehicles moving around the Parish roads. This junction will become difficult to manoeuvre and requires the provision of a roundabout or a traffic light system and speed restrictions to slow traffic and make the junction safe. 46

Chestnut Avenue. Chestnut Avenue will bisect the area of development around Kermode Hall and the Warrant Officers’ and Sergents’ Mess with the Old Workshops site. Chestnut Avenue is already a busy road, which is difficult to cross safely. The increase in the population and vehicles will require the provision of safe pedestrian crossings for residents traversing between sites.

Traffic calming. measures will need to be put in place throughout the Parish to accommodate the increase in vehicle volume. The narrow country roads were not built to accommodate the future traffic requirement and speeds will need to be controlled through the inhabited area of the village.

• a. Halton Lane is of particular concern as it is already an accident black spot, due to the narrow hairpin bends and the crossing at Perch Bridge.
• b. Traffic calming will also be required on Halton Village Road and Chestnut Avenue as the latter will have new development on both sides of the road. Reducing the speed limit from 60mph to 40mph on Halton Village Road (a country road with no pavements, which approaches the village from Weston Turville).
• c. The stretch of the B4009 between Halton House and Main Point is already busy. Due to the speed of traffic, it is difficult to for pedestrians to cross, and the footpath has become extremely narrow over the years due to the lack of ‘siding out’, which puts the pedestrians at risk due to their close proximity to the vehicles. Reducing the speed limit from 40mph to 30 mph will make the area safer, both for pedestrians and drivers.