Montpelier Park: Measures to make the exits onto St Andrews Road safer

[Ben Bywater]

Hello,

Copying everyone into this letter pasted below. We have got to sort this out! I may call up tomorrow to get the best person's name to send it to so the Dear Sir/Madam may change.

Ben



Traffic Management
4th Floor
Wilder House
Wilder Street
Bristol
BS2 8PH

Dear Sir/Madam,

We live opposite Montpelier Park and like a lot of people in the area take our children to play there on a regular basis. The council are doing great things with the place and more and more people are using it. Hence the urgency with which the following issue need to be addressed.

Like many parents we worry about the speed at which cars and motorcycles go up and down St . Andrews Road, alongside the park and the entrances / exits to the park. This evening as I came out of the park a car mounted the pavement at about 30 mph so that it could pass another car coming down the hill. Thankfully we hadn’t yet walked onto the pavement. All too often children chase balls onto the road that have escaped from under the fence in the park.

Someone is going to get killed if nothing is done and it will probably be a child.

I am sure you know what measures might be appropriate and I expect this is something you already know all about. Perhaps some signage, a safety grill (like you have outside schools and the like to stop children running into the road), and speed bumps are in the pipeline. If so, please let me know when is planned and pleased try make it happen as soon as possible. If not, please let me know what consideration has been made and what the rationale for the decisions taken has been.
I am cc’ing this letter to Stephen Williams, MP, and the Montpelier Action Group.

Yours sincerely,



Ben Bywater

cc Stephen Williams MP
cc Montpelier Action Group

[Des Bowring]

Good one, Ben.

[Ben Bywater]

I sent this to Andrew Spicer in the Traffic Management department, by the way.

[Suzanne]

Hi Ben

Thanks for doing this. You are absolutely right about the dangers outside the park, which are exacerbated by the fact that the top end of St Andrews Rd is quite wide, and cars go along it at some spped - and are still going fast when they get to the narrower part of the road near the park.
Also, there is another dangerous aspect on St A's Road involving the paths from the railway station, and from the Old Montpelier Hotel, as anyone emerging from here is then confronted by a busy road that you only see when you are almost on top of it. (I was once walking through the path through the old hotel with a friend to take our kids to the park, and the youngest suddenly rushed ahead through the alleyway and straight out into the road because he hadn't seen the road through the alleyway properly - luckily no cars were passing).

Best of luck

Suzanne

[Ben Bywater]

Bristol Council response attached - the short of it is that:
- there are no plans for signs, bumps, or grills
- they do anticipate an inspection team visit at some point but have no idea when
- St Andrews Road is on the list for the 20mph zone.

It's not enough is it? 20mph, sIgns and a grill at both entrance/exit is surely the minimum... What next?

[Suzanne]

Maybe the answer would be to have gates at the entrances to the park? Might be an easier for BCC to afford and install than barriers on the pavement.?