Thank you for your recent newsletters which I always find an interesting read.
I was sorry not to be able to attend the recent meeting regarding the crossing by the Batchworth canal.
I regularly drive over it on my way to work in Northwood so I am aware how some other drivers seem to disregard the needs of pedestrians looking to cross and how difficult it can be sometimes be to see people there when it’s dark.
In Ruislip some of the pelican beacon poles are illuminated and that at least makes drivers aware that a crossing is there as they approach it. Better lighting also would help in my opinion.
RDRA response:
Many thanks for your email. I wholeheartedly agree with your comments and these were raised at the forum.
Also look up our column in March issue of Ricky News-page 48.
I sincerely hope that HCC/TRDC take this issue seriously and do something about it.
May elections are your opportunity to express your views to your councillors as they will be after your vote.
This article will be in the next Ricky News, written by RDRA Committee members Christina Evans, Anne Littlejohn, Andrea Clark & Debbie Wheeler.
The RDRA (Rickmansworth & District Residents’ Association) organised the Batchworth Bridge Crossing Safety Forum on 29th January, in partnership with BCC (Batchworth Community Council) to discuss the hazards of Batchworth Bridge Crossing. Fortunately to date, there has not been a fatality (unless you count the two dead swans). Over 60 residents attended the Forum.
The major concerns highlighted at the Forum:
Batchworth Bridge Crossing is frequently used by people of all ages & abilities, night & day.
There has been numerous near misses and several accidents.
Poorly lit crossing.
Drivers can’t see pedestrians at night.
Crossing is on the brow of a hill and drivers accelerate towards the crossing.
Faded crossing markings (cannot be seen from roundabout).
Inadequate and obscured 30mph signage.
Crossing is on a dual carriage way – one lane stops, the other lane doesn’t stop.
Suggestions from the Forum were:
Improve or add lighting:
The white part of the Belisha Beacon poles should be LED lit.
Add spotlights on the pole to illuminate pedestrians.
Add speed cameras leading to crossing.
Smiley Activated Message (SAM).
Larger and more frequent 30mph signage.
Painting 30mph roundels on roads leading to crossing.
Reduce speed from 40mph to 30mph on Riverside Drive (single carriageway).
Recent temporary traffic lights worked.
Residents were in favour of permanent traffic lights on the crossing.
What can we do to avert a fatality?
Contact Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) for action to be taken. Request reply. Use the HCC webform to inform them:
Thank you for braving the cold and attending the Batchworth Bridge Forum, hosted by the Rickmansworth & District Residents’ Association (RDRA) on the Wednesday 29th January.
Batchworth Community Council (BCC) has collated your comments and met County Councillor Reena Ranger to discuss them.
Cllr Ranger said, “Thank you for taking the time to talk to RDRA and Batchworth Community Council – I will be discussing the feedback with Hertfordshire County Council. These will be very helpful for improving Hertfordshire’s initial proposals sent to BCC along with the expert analysis I funded.”
Since the meeting, Batchworth Community Council and Cllr Ranger have raised the ‘small’ improvements with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC), to see if they can go ahead without a wider scheme.
In addition, a resident who attended the meeting has launched a petition for Three Rivers District Council to part-fund the works to the crossing using Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL): paid by developers to improve infrastructure locally.
The petition can be found on the Three Rivers Website https://my.threerivers.gov.uk/ please search for “Make Batchworth Bridge Crossing Safe for all users”. To sign the petition log in with your usual Three Rivers user name and password or register if you’ve not used the TRDC site before.
CIL was discussed at the forum last week. In total, £3.5 million has been paid for developments in Batchworth – about half of all the CIL paid across the district. However, 85% of it goes to Three Rivers, and other bodies have to apply for it.
BCC backed a Hertfordshire County Council bid to help fund the crossing, but this was refused by Three Rivers in December. The petition is for Three Rivers to rethink its decision.
BCC and Cllr Ranger will be in touch as soon as we have some news to give you on this project. Again, thank you for attending and your comments.
I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to extend my thanks to the Rickmansworth and District Residents Association for organizing the Batchworth Bridge Crossing Safety Forum. It was a valuable opportunity for the community to come together and discuss much-needed road safety improvements.
The discussions highlighted the real dangers posed by both the Batchworth Bridge crossing and the Church Street (A404) crossing near the Moor Lane roundabout. The latter, in particular, seems even more hazardous due to poor visibility and fast-moving traffic.
Would the redevelopment of Trinity Court into residential units strengthen the case for road safety improvements in the area? It would be helpful to understand what the next steps might be and how we can best support efforts to push for action from the relevant authorities.
I’d be keen to stay involved and offer any assistance in moving things forward. Please do let me know how I can help.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
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RDRA response:
Many thanks for your email and feedback. Much appreciated. We’ll always keep you posted and updated on the developments with this issue.
Message received Dec 14, 2024 – via Contact us form
Can you tell me what’s going on with regards to the temporary traffic lights on the zebra crossing nr Batchworth lock being set up earlier in the week? Are these a trial to see how it would work if these were made permanent. How long are they going to be there?.
RDRA response:
I wish I knew. I do hope that they become permanent fixtures.
HCC who are responsible should be able to assist with this. Possible contacts are Reena Ranger or Paula Hiscox who are our county councillors.
If you feel strongly about the Batchworth Bridge crossing and are free tomorrow evening (Wed 16th Oct), then please air your views at the Batchworth Community Council’s full council meeting because it’s on their agenda to discuss a consultation on the crossing.
Wednesday 16th October at 7pm
Basing House, 46 High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1HP
Hertfordshire County Council sent us a copy of their report here.
We’ve since noticed a cheaper alternative – a Belisha Beacon spotlight which can fix onto existing poles, so no need for expensive footings to be dug out. This solution has been used in Somerset, Gateshead and Newcastle councils, as per our contact at one Belisha Beacon Spotlight provider. We’ve sent their details to HCC to investigate further.
Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) actively endeavour to reduce the number and severity of Personal Injury Collisions on our roads through the work of their highway safety engineering specialists. However, road safety involves a multi-agency approach, with engineering being only one part. This is why they also work with road safety partners to educate and inform road users about what they can do to keep themselves and others safe on our roads.
We would of course like to address all road safety issues on our roads. However, because HCC do not have unlimited core funding, resources must be directed to those areas where work has the greatest potential to reduce the number and severity of collisions that occur.
There have been 8 accidents reported at this location between October 2018 and Sept 2023 (more recent date is being asked for and takes time to obtain). There have been no deaths at this location and the accidents mentioned all did not take place on the Bridge but in its vicinity – there is a key to indicate severity of accident on the attachment.
This location doesn’t meet the intervention levels to trigger core casualty reduction investigation. Nor does this location attract funding from core funding pots for intervention works.
Any changes to the beacons or lighting here would need to be funded from non core funding pots.
With regards to the currently lighting. The lighting met standards at the time of installation. Some improvements can be achieved beyond this.
There was a design for lighting upgrade plus civils work (railings/tactile etc and this has been estimated with design, engineering works, traffic management etc. Any potential for push button signals would need to be explored to see if it would be possible – but this is expected to add another £40k to the estimate, if the bridge could accommodate underground apparatus – exploration of which will be needed and associated costs would need to be met.
The distance between the road surface and the actual bridge structure is not very deep and there was question as to whether there would be enough depth to accommodate suitable foundations that would be required with taller posts. Obviously, the taller and thicker the post, the deeper the foundations would need to be to provide stability and stop them falling over in high wind etc. Kind of like the post’s ‘roots’.
I had funded ‘trial holes’ which showed there being only 150mm (6.0”) depth below the posts in the centre island. This is no-where close enough to provide posts taller than what is already there. You will see on site that these posts in the centre have bolt-down fixings. Depths at either side of the road are better and indicated some improvements can be made with better lighting provided, and a design was drawn up and costed. In order to fully improve the crossing with better lighting, guardrail and tactile paving the cost was circa £60k. A revised estimate for delivery in 24/25 would be: c.£63k.
Currently, there are pedestrian crossing signs on the approaches to the zebra crossing, and these are illuminated. There area also Belisha beacons in place on the crossing itself.
Residents have asked about the railings being removed. The railings are there to deter people crossing at various points of the bridge. The Centre railing is positioned quite far back and people waiting at the kerb can be clearly seen either in front of the railing or through it.
I can fund speed limit road markings on the road ONLY at the changes to the limit. In this case, on Riverside Drive. The other approach would allow markings at Moor Lane and London Road where limit changes from 40mph, and shown by the black blobs on the map below. But these locations are far from the bridge itself, so this doesn’t not appear to serve the purpose they are intending to serve.
Black blobs show where speed limit changes
As per the Highway Code that:
You MUST NOT exceed the maximum speed limits for the road and for your vehicle (see the speed limits table). A speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h), or 20mph (32km/h) in Wales, generally applies to all roads with street lights (excluding motorways) unless signs show otherwise.
30 mph repeater signs are not permitted on restricted roads; these are roads where there are street lights not more than 200 yards apart
Whilst I note the request for the County Council to take action, perhaps I should start by explaining that one of the County Council’s Key Priorities is to reduce the number of people who are either killed, or injured on our Road Network each year, and a significant budget exists towards such work, which is known as our Safety Engineering Program.
Each year a hazardous sites report is produced which highlights where there have been large frequencies of collisions for all roads within the county, from this information, Collision investigations are undertaken on a worst first basis. Remedial measures are then promoted which are seen to be the most appropriate way to treat the collision trends identified at the particular location. This can range from full scale traffic calming schemes (i.e. constructing speed humps etc.), to smaller scale works such as improving signage and road markings.
When HCC review collisions on the highway they know that there are three potential factors (Human Behaviour/ Vehicle/ Highway) and they always assess these when determining if remedial measures are appropriate and what form they could take.
Having checked the history for this location, this shows that this site would not qualify for consideration for Works under HCCs Safety Engineering Program. Therefore at the present time I am afraid that the County Council does not have any funds available within its Core Budgets to undertake any works, on the basis that this site does not meet the criteria for further investigations or potential funding.
As you are aware, I have been in touch with Batchworth Community Council who have agreed to fund half the works, this leave the other half to find. Unless BCC are willing to fund the entire project as one of local request, I am left looking at alternative funding pots, but this will take time and will depend on a successful application.
Experience shows it is local people who know the roads who zip through them. We ask all those in the area to be mindful of their speeds at all times.
