HC Deb 13 March 1970 vol 797 cc1815-24

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Terence Boston.]

4.3 p.m.

Mr. John Farr (Harborough)

I raise the problem of Braunstone Lane, in my constituency, about which I have had a certain amount of correspondence with the Minister of Transport and his predecessors by letter and at Question Time.

It is perhaps symptomatic of the times in which we live that since this title appeared on the Order Paper a number of people have telephoned to me from newspapers and television companies to find what it was about. I do not know what they imagined the problems of Braunstone Lane were, but when I said that they are matters of life and death affecting my constituents because of road traffic, they immediately withdrew their interest and said that they did not think the subject would be very entertaining. It may not be entertaining, but to me and to my hon. Friends who are present it is a matter of life and death which should be dealt with at the earliest possible date.

I shall give briefly some of the historical background to the problems which I shall refer. They are traffic problems. Braunstone Lane is an East-West road running to the South of Leicester City and the north of the county. It is known as Road B5418 between Kirby Muxloe and Wigston, but the part with which this debate is concerned is the part which lies between A46 and the Coventry—Leicester road and A47 and the Hinckley—Leicester Road. This is not the case of a road with a long and tragic chapter of accidents, for my file goes back only three or four years, but it is the case of a road with a short and very tragic chapter of accidents.

This chapter commences with the opening of the M1 spur on the A46. Since this spur was opened and the road commenced to be used by traffic to get on to the M1 and to get off it the accident rate has doubled, and in the past 12 months alone there have been more fatal accidents on this stretch of road than in the previous five years. The cause lies almost entirely in the flow of traffic to and from the industrial estate of Braunstone aerodrome as vehicles pass between there and the motorway.

This has concerned me and my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, South-West (Mr. Tom Boardman) for some three or four years now. The lane happens to be as well as the boundary between the City and the County of Leicester the boundary between our constituencies, and so we have a mutual problem in seeing that a successful solution is arrived at. My hon. Friend, who, I am sure, will speak later on, if he is successful in catching your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and I have been busy in the past two or three years with suggested remedies to bring a halt to this tragic sequence of accidents. Some of the remedies which we have suggested and which have been turned down are as follows.

A very early one was that the heavy traffic which causes so much of the trouble on this relatively narrow lane from the Braunstone aerodrome industrial estate to the M1, instead of using the lane, should use a slip road and get on to the motorway at the Leicester Forest East service station. This seemed an ideal solution not only to my hon. Friend and me but to the companies concerned, because, as the Chairman of B.S.C. Footwear said to me in a letter, all his drivers who use the lane very frequently know that this is not a roadway suitable for the passage of double-decker buses at frequent intervals, and they know it is not suitable for the passage of 7½-ton vans. Of course, in addition, the use of the slip roadway on to the M1 at the Leicester Forest East service station would preserve the many thousands of people who live on either side of Braunstone Lane from the disruption caused by very heavy vehicles, and would also make it much easier for the firms concerned and speedier for them to reach the motorway. Some of the firms which joined me in this approach from the Braunstone aerodrome estate were the Milk Marketing Board, B.S.C. Footwear I have already mentioned, A.E.I., Oliver's, Batchelor's, and many others responsible for a good deal of the heavy traffic. However, this solution was abandoned because neither Leicester County Council nor Leicester City Council felt it could support an application of this nature to the Minister of Transport.

So other solutions were explored, and I have tabled a number of Questions, and I wrote to the hon. Gentleman's predecessor at the Ministry of Transport, in connection with the possibility of establishing at least one pedestrian crossing on this busy road. There is none at the moment. I also suggested that, as there are shops on the south side and many of the people concerned tend to cross the road from the north side to get to them, the provision of adequate guard rails in strategic places in conjunction with at least one pedestrian crossing would help towards a solution. I may say in passing that this suggestion was prompted, so far as I was concerned, by a petition which was drawn up and signed by some 700 residents in the neighbourhood after one of the recent fatal accidents, when a little boy was run over and killed. The answer I received was that the stretch of road did not comply with a Ministry of Transport criterion which lays down the passenger and traffic density required in a standard case before a pedestrian crossing will be provided. I was further informed that, as this was a B class road, the county council was responsible for the provision of a pedestrian crossing.

Within the last few months I have approached the county council and asked what its proposals were for improving the road. I had a very concise answer, the clarity of which I recommend to other local authorities, inasmuch as it was not open to misinterpretation. It said that there were no proposals in hand to improve Braunstone Lane. The reply also said that putting up guard rails at specific intervals was the responsibility of the city council and that my suggestion had been sent to the city council for consideration. This was in July, and the city council is probably still considering the matter as I have heard nothing more. The county council went on to say—no doubt this is meant to be encouraging to the thousands of people who are concerned about the road—that it was expected that a new southern city ring road would be completed in approximately 10 years' time. The county council categorically ruled out a pedestrian crossing on the ground that it did not fall within the criterion laid down by the Ministry of Transport to which I have already referred.

I object to the strict application of a specific criterion or formula for the establishment of a pedestrian crossing in every part of the country regardless of local conditions. I understand that the main elements in reaching a decision are the passenger flow and the traffic flow, but many other matters should be taken into consideration before such a decision is reached. I appreciate that it is necessary to have a formula as a guideline to local authorities in operating the B road system, but the formula should be flexible, so that in exceptional circumstances, as there are here, a pedestrian crossing can be provided even if the passenger flow and the traffic flow are not quite up to the required minimum level.

The county council advised me that a ring road might be completed in ten years time, but I am not prepared to wait that long for a satisfactory solution to the problem, especially with the increased rate of fatal accidents, and neither is my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, South-West.

I ask the Minister to ensure that factors such as the narrowness of the road, sharp bends and the parking of vehicles so as to obscure the view of drivers, are taken into account, in addition to the passenger and traffic density, in deciding whether or not a pedestrian crossing should be provided. What part, if any, does the size of the vehicle play before arriving at a solution as to whether or not a pedestrian crossing should be established? A succession of 7½ton heavy lorries, vans and double-decker buses rumbling up and down is a far different proposition from the same number of smaller mini-vans or private motorcars.

I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, South-West wishes to raise some of the anxieties of his own constituents in this matter and I wish to give him the opportunity to make some observations. I wish to give notice now that I am not prepared to accept the statement by any council responsible for this disgraceful state of affairs, a statement that was issued nine months ago, that there are no proposals whatever to improve this road and that it might be another ten years or so before a new city ring road is built to relieve the strain. That is not good enough. I ask for a ray of hope to be given by the Joint Parliamentary Secretary coupled with a firm undertaking.

4.17 p.m.

Mr. Tom Boardman (Leicester, South-West)

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough (Mr. Farr) for raising this matter and for coupling my objections with his. I will be brief since we wish to give the Joint Parliamentary Secretary adequate time to reply. Braunstone Lane is of particular concern to my constituents who compose the majority of pedestrians using the crossing. The road runs alongside the Braun-stone Estate, which is large and densely populated. It is from that estate that so many tragic casualties have come.

The bare statistics are not enough. One must take into account both the people and the traffic forming those statistics. As my hon. Friend has reminded the Parliamentary Secretary, the pedestrians comprise in the main two categories, children who go to schools in the area, and old people. There are a large number of old people's bungalows along that part of the Braunstone Estate and it is mainly those people who have to cross this road. The children cross it to get to the sweet shops on the other side and the old people cross it to get to the shops they wish to visit. They are the people who are the most vulnerable.

It is a narrow road; a country lane, with sharp bends and with dense traffic passing up and down it. It is not enough to look at the traffic figures themselves but at the type of traffic which uses the road. It consists mainly of heavy lorries rumbling down the road at considerable volume and rate. The road is being used for traffic which it is not equipped to take.

One solution, which at one time was supported by the police and which I am sorry has not been taken up by the local authority, was to feed the traffic from the industrial estate onto the motorway. I believe that this is a solution which may offer a ray of hope for the future. There are many other proposals which time will not allow me to develop, but which have been touched upon by my hon. Friend.

The road itself is outside the Leicester City boundary. It is one of those problems involving a dividing line rather arbitrarily drawn, with the responsibility resting on one authority, while the people who are the most vulnerable are on the other side of the dividing line.

I am sure that the Parliamentary Secretary will recognise the financial burden that any necessary works would impose. I hope he will also recognise that neither my hon. Friend nor I would lightly put forward this demand if we did not feel sincerely about it. If something is not done quickly, further fatal or near-fatal accidents will occur. We should be failing in our duty if we did not push as forcibly as we can both upon the Parliamentary Secretary and on our respective local authorities the urgency of the need for something to be done, and to be done quickly.

4.20 p.m.

The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. Bob Brown)

Let me say at once that I share both the hon. Members' concern for the safety of pedestrians along Braunstone Lane and I very much regret the accidents which have occurred there.

Braunstone Lane—B5418—is in the Leicestershire County area and closely follows the Leicester City boundary. It is a mainly residential second-class road, but it is used as a major through route between the A46 and A47 trunk roads. It is a two-lane, single carriageway road with a 30 m.p.h. speed limit and is about 20 ft. wide along most of its length. There are a number of bends—two of which are severe—and a footpath along both sides for most of its length. Part of it is a bus route, and there are seven junctions on the city side and 14 on the county side, but there are no waiting restrictions or pedestrian facilities. I am told that the children from the four schools situated near Braunstone Lane should not have to cross this road on their way to and from school. There is no industrial development, but there are a small number of shops in five of the adjoining roads.

The House will recall that I answered a Question by the hon. Member for Harborough (Mr. Farr) on 22nd May, 1969—Vol. 784, c. 175—on this subject. I said then that the Leicestershire County Council was the highway authority for Braunstone Lane and that we had received no representations from it about safety on this road.

At this point I should explain my right hon. Friend's position in relation to the provision of pedestrian crossings, and by pedestrian crossings I understood the hon. Members to be referring to zebra, uncontrolled, crossings as these are by far the most common. On 25th July, 1968, my right hon. Friend's predecessor announced to the House—Vol. 769, c. 191—that all control over the siting of zebra crossings was to be delegated to local authorities within the broad framework of a quota system based on the population of their areas and on a set of flexible criteria.

At the time that this decision was announced, local authorities were also asked to review their pedestrian crossing needs and submit schemes to the Ministry's divisional road engineers for approval on behalf of the Minister. The schemes were to include a list of sites of existing crossings, but, as for the new crossings, only the total number that the local authority would require in the future. Provided that the total number was within the population quota for the area, the divisional road engineer would give his formal approval without further question.

Now, the Leicestershire County Council has not yet formally submitted its new pedestrian crossing scheme for the divisional road engineer's approval. But the county has carried out a review of its crossing needs under the delegation arrangements, and its proposals were put to the divisional road engineer on 4th August, 1969. These proposals, which retain six existing zebra crossings on non-trunk roads in the county area and provide for a further six crossings at unspecified sites, were agreed by the divisional road engineer on 9th August, 1969, on the understanding that a scheme submitted on this basis would be approved. We are given to understand that there was no provision for a zebra crossing in Braunstone Lane in its proposals because the county had decided that conditions there did not meet our recommended criteria.

Perhaps I should refer at this point to the hon. Member's further Question on 27th November, 1969—Vol. 792, c. 143–144. In my answer, I then said that, as Braunstone Lane is not a trunk or principal road, the provision of a crossing would be the responsibility of the Leicestershire County Council. I also said that the council had considered the matter and had concluded that a pedestrian crossing would not be justified, but that both the county council and the Leicester County Borough Council were aware of local concern and that a further study of the road was to be carried out by the Ministry's Midland Road Safety Unit in co-operation with the two authorities. I also said that this would inevitably take a little time.

By the end of January, the unit had completed its comprehensive study of Braunstone Lane, which included a full analysis of all personal injury accidents on this road in the three years ending 31st December, 1969. The unit's report recommended, first, that a meeting should be called between representatives of the local authorities, the police, road safety officers, the divisional road engineer and, of course, the road safety unit itself, to discuss the accident analysis with a view to the formation of a working party which would in its turn consider, in detail, measures to help reduce accidents along Braunstone Lane. The report also suggested, broadly, what some of these measures might be.

The initial meeting was held, as recommended, at the County Offices, Leicester, on 5th March and it was decided that a working party fully representative of all local interests should meet at Braunstone Lane on 17th March, that is, next Tuesday, to study the whole problem on the spot. Safety measures suggested included the construction of full lay-bys at some of the bus stops to benefit both drivers and pedestrians and the widening of the carriageway at certain points to enable central refuges to be put in for pedestrians. Although, as I have said before, children attending the four nearby schools do not have to cross Braunstone Lane, it was also recognised that the high percentage of accidents involving children under 15 years called for a special effort by road safety officers to give child safety training at the schools. They were also asked to stress the parents' responsibility for their young children, one of the most important recommendations in this case.

As an interim measure the local authorities decided to provide advance "Bend" signs and chevron markings on the east side of Neal Avenue from the A46 to the A47 to warn drivers of the severe bends. It is my hope that all those attending next Tuesday's meeting are able to decide on some fairly quick remedies.

I began by saying that we shared the concern of hon. Members for the people who must use Braunstone Lane. I think I can honestly end it by saying that the Minister has not only amply demonstrated that this is so by putting the resources of the Department's Road Safety Unit at the disposal of the local authorities and carrying out this thorough review, but has also shown that we are concerned to tackle this kind of problem in an immediate and highly practical way.

Mr. Farr

Can the hon. Gentleman say whether the working party which is to meet on Tuesday will be able to authorise the establishment of a panda crossing, if such a crossing is needed?

Mr. Brown

Panda crossings are no longer used. They have been replaced by pelican crossings. It would be for the council to decide whether the criteria called for a pelican crossing.

The last thing in the world I should want to advocate would be a pedestrian crossing for children, because small children, particularly, would then be given a false sense of security. They must be supervised. Unfortunately, this is also true of elderly people, especially the more infirm, and it is not a bad thing for elderly parents to be encouraged to seek assistance when crossing the road.

Mr. Tom Boardman

Can the hon. Gentleman say anything about feeding traffic into the motorway from the industrial estate?

Mr. Brown

That is not a matter for me. It is something which the hon. Member will have to pursue with the two councils concerned. This is not a road for which my right hon. Friend has any direct responsibility.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty-nine minutes past Four o'clock.