Next Monday, February 13 (not a Friday), Rye Town Council will be asked to support a 20mph speed limit in the town – but the devil may be in the detail. The Town Hall meeting starts at 6:30pm, the public can attend, and the agenda includes a public question time.
The council will be asked to support the Rye Bypass Action Group’s request for a 20mph speed limit throughout the town, which may or may not mean a 20mph “zone” which has (by law) to have traffic calming measures – like humps.
However it may mean specific roads – like the A268 down Rye Hill, or the A259 which includes Winchelsea Road, Strand Quay, South Undercliff, Fishmarket Road, and New Road – as well as Station Approach, Cinque Ports Street etc etc (according to my Ordnance Survey Map) – and the B2089 (Ferry Road and Udimore Road) – and even perhaps Military Road.
But here it gets complicated because who calls the shots may be determined by what is regarded as part of the “strategic road network” – and it might be Highways England, or it might be East Sussex County Council – and different rules and criteria (and even budgets) may apply. So South Undercliff may be “strategic” and Station Approach may not be.
This may explain why the Rye Neighbourhood Plan in its “aspirations” section, page 137 of draft version 8, wants to press for a 20mph speed limit for the Citadel, Cinque Ports Street, Wish Ward, Ferry Road (up to the level crossing), Station Approach, Tower Street and Landgate only, because of the amount of pedestrian traffic in those areas – and because they have read the government small print.
Department For Transport guidance in 2013 says 20 mph may be appropriate in major streets where there are – or could be – significant numbers of journeys on foot, and these are an important consideration.
The guidance, which reads better along with a very large rum and coke, also says that speed limits have to be evidence-led and be part of a package with other measures.
The Neighbourhood Plan therefore also calls for the installation at the town boundary on all five entry roads of distinctive markings to remind all users to comply with the 30 mph limit. But these are just aspirations, outside of what the Neighbourhood Plan is about, and may get shot down in the referendum on the plan. The council may have to think very carefully therefore about what they actually ask residents to vote for or against in the referendum (you may recall “Brexit”) as a “maybe” choice does not seem to be on the cards.
Similarly, the council may have to think very carefully about where they want 20mph limits, who they (or the action group) have to ask, and strategically how they may get it. . . which may be one step at a time.
Speed limits can be set below the national limit in response to local risk factors and conditions, including junctions, bends and even floods, and parts of the A259 may rightly deserve more 30mph signs immediately, including VAS (Vehicle Activated Signs) which tell individual drivers they are going too fast. The straight roads across reclaimed marshland are deceptively misleading about the actual roads they encounter in Rye – whether it is from Winchelsea, or along the Military Road.
Also particular roads, like the B2089 down Udimore Hill, or sections of roads, like the Station Approach, may either be County Council responsibility or subject to special consideration (like the cattle market or school buses) so any thinking has to be strategic and practical – which appears to be the Neighbourhood Plan’s approach.
So it could be an interesting public session and council debate on Monday – and it may even spill over into the Annual Town Meeting on the evening of March 1. However, like a bypass, which got shelved in the ’80s and ’90s, it is a problem which will not go away – and the size of the lorries is getting even bigger, and the number of vehicles (in our basically medieval town) is getting even greater.
Photo: Rye News library
There is certainly a case for having traffic calming on the entry roads to Rye. The open straight sections before entering the town mean that many cars are above 30 mph when they cross the boundary and slow down gradually in the town.
I hope that the Town Councillors (uncluding our District and County reps) have done their homework before the discussion so that the debate can be an informed one. As a starter Highways England reports e.g. Local Transport Note 1/07 Traffic Calming. Also Surrey County Council have produced a good practice guide on Traffic Calming that is worth a read.
It would be useful if the defunct 30mph flashing sign at the entrance to Rye on New Winchelsea Road could be fixed. And some small repeaters installed. I was told by the Highways Agency that according to the Highway Code where there are street lights on the so-called Strategic Route from Folkestone to Honiton aka the A259 the limit is automatically 30mph so there is no need for repeaters but I would say 90 per cent of drivers ignore that. Sometimes it is really dangerous.
This is all pointless, unless there is enforcement. Signs, flashing or otherwise, do nothing. I live on Military Road, it’s like a race track, especially early morning with cars entering the 30mph limit at more like 50 and, similarly, leaving Rye they are often well in excess of the limit going past the tennis courts. A couple of years ago the Rye police made some perfunctory visits with a speed camera, and positioned themselves at the tennis court, by they seem to have given up. The only real solutions on all the approach roads into Rye are two fold: First, put the 30mph or 20mph limit further out of town. Putting it at effectively the first house is no good at all. Second, install real traffic calming measures at that point which require traffic to slow right down. Raised sections of road, about ten metres long, require traffic to slow and are the only solution. But they cost money, and probably need planning, to it is unlikely anything will ever happen. Especially if Rye Town Council have to do anything.
Rye needs a 20 mile speed limit with so many aged, young and visitors.