The residents of Swadlincote demand that Derbyshire County
Council redesign the traffic flow around the new and hugely flawed
Derby Rd/Woodhouse St/Kiln Way junction by restoring direct access
from one end of Woodhouse St to the other. The current design has
done nothing to improve the flow of traffic at Tollgate island and
has just exacerbated existing issues in and around town. The
current situation demands all Swadlincote bound traffic from
Tollgate island take a 1km round trip along Kiln Way to the nearest
roundabout and back or use an alternate route, all of which are of
a similar distance along roads with simply cannot handle the
additional traffic. The ridiculous design has led to many people
either performing U-turns around the barrier on Kiln Way, or
alternatively turning around in one of the entrance roads to one of
the surrounding local businesses which has already caused a number
of minor accidents. People have even been seen to resort to
entering Kiln Way on the wrong side of the road from the new
island. Aside from the obvious issues, there is now more congestion
than ever at the Coppice Side/York Road junction in Church Gresley
due to the additional traffic being forced up Coppice side, and I'm
sure there are similar issues at every existing pinch point along
Civic way. Civic way has already been burdened by number of
illogical decisions over the last 15-20 years, and I can only
assume that the local emergency services and bus companies were at
no time asked for their opinions or just had them completely
ignored. The only people that appear to benefit from this whole
situation seem to be the owners & employees of the fencing
company on Derby Road, who appear to have been 'gifted' the now
useless section of Woodhouse St as a free car park at the
tax-payers expense.
These issues CANNOT be resolved with 'petty' rules to prohibit
U-turns along the road, this would just lead to more people turning
around in the various entrances along Kiln Way unless you are going
to fence off the entire 500m stretch to the first roundabout. As
far as I'm aware, it is completely legal to enter or exit any
junction from the main highway. I suggest the simplest and most
appropriate solution to these problems would be to re-open the
lower section of Woodhouse St to traffic heading towards Church
Gresley, with traffic lights where Woodhouse St and Kiln Way cross.
Simple, effective, and more importantly, far more convenient for
local residents.
Started by: Paul Simkin
On reaching 100 signatures The matter will be referred to the relevant Cabinet Member.
This ePetition ran from 06/09/2023 to 29/03/2024 and has now finished.
97 people signed this ePetition.