Since the SCC Highways Management team have moved in with Kier in Phoenix House it seems that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

In Endeavour House the Highways Network Improvement team are desperately trying to find a good enough reason to replace the ‘Beagle Roundabout’ with traffic lights at a cost of £125,000.  Supposedly this will reduce the chance of accidents – though there have only been a handful of minor ones in the last 5 years – and improve the flow of traffic along the A1071 for the couple of rush hours.   So what is wrong with this hypothesis?  At rush hour the build up of traffic will only be eased by sorting out the junction with Hadleigh Road through a left filter and changing the phasing of the lights at the Holiday Inn which do not let enough vehicles out from the A1071.  Then there is the future proposed development behind the Holiday Inn – shouldn’t the exits from this site be built into any solution, especially as there could be some 300 houses and 70 businesses on the site.

On the other hand the Highways Management team in Phoenix House want to take down and not replace street lights on a stretch of the old London Road in Washbrook.  This will pitch into darkness a junction where there has been 2 cyclists killed in the last couple of years and at least 2 vehicles (one an ambulance!) have been caught going the wrong way up the dual carriageway.  The schoolchildren have to cross this road to get to their bus, the residents have to cross it to get to the community hall.  There is a hotel with function suite and a number of businesses in the area.  There is a school and a garage.  Ah but the road isn’t used any more they say – try saying that to the residents when there is a build up of traffic on the A12.

So whilst the right hand wants to waste money on a flawed scheme the left hand can’t find any to retain a semblance of safety.

But what are your views on:

a) replacing the roundabout at The Beagle with traffic lights;

b) removing the street lights on the old London Road from the Cameo Hotel to the Tesco underpass?