West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan

20. Transport

20.1 Objectives

• To make getting around the parish and elsewhere by foot, bicycle, car and bus simple, more convenient and safer.
• To ensure critical infrastructure is provided for new developments.
• To enable wider transport infrastructure to be improved upon, especially to calm traffic, control parking and improve walking and cycling.

20.2 Background & Intent

The village has generally good main (B1508) and minor road connections to the A12, Colchester town centre, the rail station, Tollgate retail area and towards Sudbury and the rural Essex-Suffolk border area.

Bus services are provided by two companies, Chambers, providing an hourly service to Colchester and Sudbury, and First Bus that operates a 30-minute frequency peak and daytime service to the town centre via the Rail Station. On Sundays the frequency of buses drops to two hourly. School buses serve the main secondary schools whilst the Care Network. and Community bus services offer a bookable service for those unable to use conventional public transport easily. Footways are generally provided adjacent to the majority of roads and the area is covered by 30mph speed restrictions. There are no cycle ways although a signed cycle route to the rail station using the main road has been provided in recent years and similarly the National Cycle Network route 13 skirts the village providing a means of accessing the wider countryside.

20.3 Evidence

20.3.1 Connectivity and Traffic Management

Connectivity is reasonably good for the village and indeed across the parish area, although the highway infrastructure is by no means modern. Thus, links to the south west to the A12 and to retail parks on the edge of Colchester is via a narrow and winding lane – Argents Lane or via another country lane leading to a level crossing. This route draws in traffic not only from the village but from across the parish and indeed north Colchester. Whilst there is no desire to see this route upgraded there is a feeling that heavy good traffic could be more controlled and prohibited, save for access. The main route through the village also attracts its fair share of through traffic including skip lorries from a nearby recycling company in a neighbouring parish. Since this road is the one that passes the favoured areas of development there will be a need to introduce traffic regulating facilities such as crossings and perhaps mini-roundabouts to "calm" traffic speeds and intensity. Elsewhere in the more residential areas there is a strongly supported desire to regulate parking and introduce 20 mph streets or preferably 20 mph zones.

20.3.2 Highways

The main concerns with the infrastructure, aside from traffic circulation is the fabric of the main routes and residential side streets which are beginning to show their age. The intention with this issue is to establish a better dialogue with the County Council to enable inspection and maintenance regimes to be better understood and to receive better notification of when repairs and surfacing programmes will be carried out.

20.3.3 Bus Services

The main bus service to the railway station and the town centre is at 30-minute frequencies and information about arrivals and departures in real time is now available via Smartphones. Coupled with services provided by the other operator, this means that there are 3 services per hour, dropping to 1 in the evenings and 1 every two hours on Sundays. This should do much to improve the perception of service frequency and reliability and increase the numbers using the bus. It is considered vital to get information on frequency and real-time information out to all households rather than hoping that this information will naturally be passed on. Such an initiative is vital to establish sustainable travel patterns in any new developments that are built. Through the plan's implementation it is intended to work with bus companies on a range of incentives to use the bus including multi-operator tickets, books of multi-journey tickets and reduced price for family travel.

20.3.4 Cycling

Cycling should be far more prevalent than it is. Journeys to the railway station to Colchester are less than 3 miles in length whilst journeys across the village are at most 10 minutes away by bike. Similarly, for recreational or health pursuits cycling in the parish is an absolute delight of riding in mostly lightly trafficked roads with great views over the Colne Valley or across towards Suffolk and Constable Country. The issue is normally lack of information coupled with the natural fear of traffic. A cycle user group is a possibility to extol the virtues of cycling for leisure or utility journeys and to establish where physical infrastructure such as cycle ways or parking facilities could be introduced.

20.3.5 Walking

There is a good provision of footways (pavements) and footpaths but some facilities are missing. These include footways in New Church road leading to the school and in Nayland Road leading to one of the employment zones at Patterns Yard. There is also a need for further crossings along Lexden Road and Colchester Road. Lastly, recreational walking guides would help publicise the public rights of way to the community to help encourage health and family circular walks.

20.4 Summary of SWOT

20.5 The Plan's Approach

Although there has been some growth in the village there is nothing to suggest that major road infrastructure is required, rather it is likely to be the management of traffic and parking, together with the introduction of more bus services and the improvement of the walking and cycling environment that should be the focus.

As the objectives relate in part to the use and development of land and wider community aspirations both Planning Policies and Community Ambitions have been developed.

20.6 Policies and Community Ambitions