On Wednesday afternoon Mark George, owner of the Brewham Road Renault truck service station, helped the Town Council to conduct a real world test of the pedestrian proposals that Somerset County Council Highways have deemed safe by computer simulations.
Mark drives Brewham Road every day, so is no stranger to the downhill right-angled turning from the Frome direction. Driving one of his business’ articulated trucks very slowly, he proved that the Acorn Property Group proposals for a 1.2 metre wide pavement could be deadly to pedestrians.
Fin McNab and Richard Latchman of transport design experts Streets Reimagined marked out the proposed pavement that would be built under Acorn’s plans. Bruton Town Council borrowed an ‘Angel of the Road’ from Bruton Area Street Improvement Initiative (BASII) to ‘stand in’ for a real pedestrian, so that no real pedestrians could be injured during the trial.
The video footage below shows that expert driver Mark George, driving very slowly, cannot avoid driving onto the proposed pavement, thus knocking over the Angel of the Road. The photograph from along Brewham Road in front of the truck shows that Mark cannot avoid having the rear wheels of his trailer on the inside pavement of the corner, at the same time that his front wheels are on the proposed southside pavement.
The Outline Planning Appliction 19/00655/OUT – Land OS 9609 Brewham Road, Bruton for “the development of up to 60 residential dwellings (Use Class C3), together with associated highways and drainage infrastructure, public open space and landscaping.” will be heard at South Somerset District Council (SSDC)’s Area East Committee, next Wednesday morning, 9 October, from 9 am at Churchfield, Wincanton. These highways and pedestrian access are submitted for approval with all other matters (Layout, Scale, Appearance and Landscaping) reserved for later approval.
Bruton Town Council respectfully disagrees with Somerset County Council Highways opinion that “the vehicle swept paths are achievable without impacting the new footway.”
We trust that our Area East District Councillors will reject these potentially deadly proposals on the Planning grounds that they do not comply with National Planning Policy Framework paragraphs 109 (“unacceptable impact on highway safety”) and 110 a)-c).
The Angel of the Road was returned unharmed to BASII, after its terrifying brush with a large truck, while thinking it was safe on a pavement.
