New junction Woodmansey Mile and Long Lane

The Parish Council continues to speak to Bellway Housing on concerns for access and safety at the new junction on Woodmansey Mile and Long Lane.  New traffic lights are in place, however residents of Long Lane are already concerned the ‘ahead only’ signs are being ignored and drivers are turning into Long Lane.

Representatives of Bellway were invited to the September meeting but Cllrs were very frustrated to find out that they had not been sent the questions put together for them by the Parish Council.  These had been sent to ERYC Enforcement as the Parish Council was told it could not liaise direct with Bellway and had to go thro ERYC – the questions can be found here Cllr Questions for Bellway Visit

We have now a contact with Bellway and last week they sent the following explanation as to the design of the junction.

Further to our recent attendance at the Parish Meeting to discuss our Beverley project and in particular member’s comments on the access, I have contacted our Highways designer, LTP, to provide an overview the current design. 

To expand, LTP (Local Transport Projects) are an independent professional traffic engineering, transport planning and highway design consultant and were appointed by Bellway to design a safe access arrangement for the development.  Below is an overview of the key steps, the approval process and design iteration that has led to the current design.  You will note that this has been a thorough process to ensure the arrangement operates in a safe manner.

The steps that have been taken to develop the design for the traffic signals at Long Lane/Woodmansey Mile are as follows:

The original highway access proposals for the development that were included in the Planning Application of 19th April 2021 (ref. 21/01492/STPLF) showed access being taken from an extension of Woodmansey Mile with Long Lane being closed to vehicular traffic using bollards that would allow pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians to continue to use Long Lane.

Following the submission of the planning application, a number of responses were received from local stakeholders. A review of these responses and subsequent discussions with East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) planning and highway officers identified that the proposed access arrangements needed to:

• retain access for vehicles on Long Lane; and

• retain the ‘green lane’ status of Long Lane as a popular route for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders, with low vehicle flows.

Following this review the access arrangements were amended to include a traffic signal controlled junction at Long Lane/Woodmansey Mile with all turning movements prohibited to prevent any additional vehicular use of Long Lane over existing traffic flows. Pedestrians and cyclists would be able to make all movements at the junction. These proposed amendments were reported on and assessed in the Highway Access Note of 28^th July 2023 with the proposed layout being provided in the drawing ref. LTP/3913/P1/03.01 REV A.

These preliminary design proposals were accepted in principle by ERYC Highways in their report of 20^th October 2021 subject to further development design development and a Road Safety Audit as part of the s278/s38 process for the development access.  This was subsequently included as a planning condition (Condition 21) in the Notice of Decision of 21^st March 2022 that states:

“Development shall not begin on the site until details of the layout, drainage, construction, services and lighting of the proposed residential streets, including the connections with the existing publicly maintainable highway and to provide a signal-controlled crossing point on Long Lane and the proposed extension to Woodmansey Mile have been submitted to and approved in writing by the Planning Authority.”

The detailed design for the junction was subsequently developed and a Stage 2 Road Safety Audit undertaken in March 2023.  The design was revised to include agreed recommendations from the Road Safety Audit and submitted to ERYC for approval.  Following further review/discussion with ERYC the design received Technical Approval from ERYC on 14^th July 2023.

The scheme is currently being constructed.  Following completion of the works and commissioning of the traffic signals the scheme will be subject to a Stage 3 Road Safety Audit following which works will be undertaken where necessary to address agreed recommendations arising from the audit.

It should be noted that the scheme does include the provision of bollards on the corners of the junction to help deter vehicles from making turning movements at the junction.  The attached drawings (ref. LTP/3913/C1/12/03/C and LTP/3913/C1/SD/01/A refer.