Whiteshill School interview me over A46

Yesterday I was interviewed by a class at Whiteshill Village School for 40 mins regarding the A46 closure - the children are doing a local project and have interviewed many folk including the postman, village shop, commuters and more.

Photo: Village School yesterday with mural of Ruscombe Brook

Anyhow many spoke passionately and in detail about the effects of the road closure eg: an extra 30 mins each way to school for one child, more dangerous walking and more minor accidents. I hopefully gave satisfactory answers to their numerous questions - see previous blogs re A46 by clicking on the Label below. I did note that I felt the County had responded reasonably well to the traffic problems after the first few very dire days - speed checks, removing parking, traffic lights, signage etc - however I also noted their failure to use it as an opportunity to get people out of their cars - where were the adverts for carshare and public transport - my emails were largely ignored - although First Great Western eventually responded to my emails after 4 months and issued reduced peak travel tickets on the route. Congrats to them and shame on the County.

It was also good to hear at first hand how the children felt about the traffic along the road - and convinces me all the more of the need for a 20 mph - especially when we don't even have proper footpaths - we have already been working on the 20 mph but things move so slow - see Label below for many previous blogs on this issue.

Photo: In places the footpath disappears or narrows to less than a foot wide

I am still informed that 15th Feb is the plan for reopening the A46....Anyhow while at the school I picked up a couple of other issues which I'm following up:

Damage to cars at the Village Shop - apparently at least two recent incidents of damage to cars in the Village shop carpark. One of the school staff expressed a wish for white lines. I noted that that increased the feel of urbanisation of that area and lessened the feel of it being rural. However the Parish were talking of white lines or marks being put on the fence to help cars park. I am now following up with the Parish on this.

Lighting in footpath from school to car park - it was noted it was very dark in that footpath when staff leave the school. However I noted that there was a well lit route around along the road. To me that seems satisfactory but I have raised it with the Parish as they are reviewing street-lighting at the moment.