Littleborough housing development opposition traffic survey results

Traffic congestion on the A58 at New Road, Dearnley

The result of the recent traffic survey completed by Littleborough residents has confirmed concerns about the robustness of the transport assessment that was submitted as part of the planning application for the development of 110 new homes on land of New Road.

Local resident James Rothwell commented: “One of the purposes of the transport assessment is to provide an evaluation of the impact of new developments on traffic volume.

"The survey completed on the applicant’s behalf last March indicated that the westbound traffic volume on New Road between 07.30 and 08.30 totalled 642 vehicles.

"Our survey results have indicated that the measured vehicle volume is between 1,039 and 1,166 cars per day (38% to 45% higher) dependent on the day of the week.”

Residents also surveyed traffic exiting Stubley Mill Road to verify the assessment of volume of additional traffic that will be generated by the proposed new development.

Mr Rothwell added: “It has been projected that 42 additional vehicles would exit the proposed development during the week day peak period of 07.30 and 08.30.

"Our survey, based on the direct count of vehicles exiting Stubley Mill Road, suggests that the actual number of additional vehicles would be significantly higher with 57 additional vehicles exiting the new development.

"As the profile of housing served by Stubley Mill Road is anticipated to be slightly different to that of the proposed development we actually believe this figure will be far higher.”

Commenting on the survey results,  Councillor Ashley Dearnley said: “Whilst the resident’s do not have the technical expertise, nor access to the same technical resources that are available to the developer, the traffic survey result does cast doubts on the robustness of transport assessment submitted as part of the application. This is significant as the assessment is used by council officers in the assessment of the impact of proposed development on local transport infrastructure. 

"I am also concerned about the proposal to re-locate the New Road bus stop. This was moved to its current location for road safety reasons and the plan to change this from an ‘off-road’ stop to an ‘on-road’ stop will not only add to traffic congestion but also will potentially cause a road safety hazard.”

The results of the resident’s survey have been submitted to the Council’s Planning Department for their consideration.

More details on the results of the traffic survey are available at:

www.StopRussellHomes.co.uk