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LAND TO EAST OF GARDENERS LANE, RAMSEY
Proof of Evidence by: Bryan Hall BSc, MSc, CEng, MICE Bryan G Hall Consulting Civil \& Transportation Planning Engineers Suite E8 Joseph's Well Hanover Walk Leeds LS3 1AB
Planning Application No: 11/00990/B
My name is Bryan Geoffrey Hall.
I am a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Science Degree in Transportation Engineering.
I am a director of a consulting Engineers' practice which I established after leaving the former West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council where I was employed in the Directorate of Traffic, Highways and Engineering. In that role I was responsible for the highways development control functions of the Authority and its transport input to Local Plans.
I was employed by different local authorities for nearly twenty years and throughout that time was involved in most aspects of highways and traffic engineering.
Since establishing the practice I have been commissioned by industrial, commercial and residential developers, land owners, local authorities, public bodies, community groups and private individuals in connection with all aspects of highway and traffic related matters.
I have inspected the Application site and the local highway network for the purpose of giving evidence at this Inquiry.
1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION ..... 1 2.0 THE APPLICATION PROPOSALS AND THE IMPACT OF THE TRAFFIC THEY ARE LIKELY TO GENERATE ..... 4 3.0 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ..... 9
1.1 This Inquiry is concerned with the application of Heritage Homes Limited who are seeking full planning permission to change part of the approved layout of the proposed development to the east of Gardeners Lane, Ramsey, in order to construct
1.2 The application site, Gardeners Lane and its junctions with Greenlands Avenue and Lezayre Road, A3, together with Poylldooey Road at its approach to Ramsey town centre, are shown on the 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey plan which is attached at Appendix BGH1. 1.3 The application includes an Updated Access Statement, January 2011, which I prepared for inclusion in the earlier application (10/01693/B) and which sought permission to construct the western carriageway of a dual carriageway improvement scheme to Gardeners Lane to the south of the partially constructed roundabout, together with a localised carriageway narrowing and single lane working in the vicinity of the dismantled railway line where there are land ownership constraints. It sets out why those proposals are appropriate to safely and conveniently carry the traffic likely to be generated by the existing residential development to the north of the railway line, including that off Auldyn Walk, the partially constructed EMI Unit and ".....a further tranche of some 50 dwellings to the east of Gardeners Lane......" as set out at its paragraph 1.1. A copy of this Statement and Drawing No 10/137/TR/005, dated 14 January 2011 to which it refers, are attached at Appendix BGH2.
1.4 Planning permission for that improvement scheme was granted 2 June 2011 following an Inquiry on 10 May 2011. My Evidence to that Inquiry included the Updated Access Statement because it explained the technical reasoning behind the scheme shown on Drawing No 10/137/TR/005. The present application site also includes the same improvement scheme in order that occupation of the 45 dwellings now proposed can be prevented until it is complete even though it will be implemented before the EMI Unit is brought into use later this year in accordance with Condition 4 of its permission. (Application No 10/01805) 1.5 Officers of the Highways Division of the Department of Infrastructure do not object to the present application proposals subject to them not being implemented before Gardeners Lane is improved in accordance with the approved scheme shown on Drawing No 10/137/TR/005. A copy of the consultation response of 6 September 2011 from Hazel Fletcher is attached at Appendix BGH3. 1.6 Ramsey Town Commissioners strongly object to the proposals on grounds that unacceptable access problems will be experienced by the residents of both the existing and proposed developments off Gardeners Lane at the times of the TT and Grand Prix events when Lezayre Road is closed to traffic and that the volume of traffic likely to be generated by the additional 45 dwellings will lead to egress problems at the junction of Gardeners Lane with Lezayre Road when it is open to traffic. 1.7 Local residents object because they consider that the additional traffic likely to be generated will be detrimental to the safety and convenience of other road users and to the amenity of the area when Lezayre Road is used for the TT and Grand Prix races. 1.8 The predicted morning and evening peak hour operation of the junction of Gardeners Lane with Lezayre Road was analysed in 2003 in connection with the two planning applications for 231 dwellings which comprised a proposal of
52 dwellings to the west of Gardeners Lane, off Auldyn Walk, and a proposal of 179 dwellings and plots to the east of Gardeners Lane. That analysis showed that the occasional queue of vehicles waiting to turn left from Gardeners Lane into Lezayre Road may form during the morning peak period and that a similar one may form in Lezayre Road whilst waiting to turn right into Gardeners Lane during the evening peak period when the traffic generated by the entire development was using the junction but that continuous queuing in either of the approaches would not occur. It also showed that vehicles leaving Gardeners Lane or turning right into it during either the morning or evening peak periods would typically experience delays of up to some ten seconds. 1.9 My Evidence to this Inquiry considers the concerns of the objectors and is again set out in the Updated Access Statement, January 2011 which refers to Drawing No 10/137/TR/005, both of which form part of the planning application. I have also carried out additional surveys of the existing use of the junction of Gardeners Lane with Lezayre Road in order to provide up to date use of the junction and update the analyses of the junction when it is carrying only the additional traffic likely to be generated by the 45 dwellings of the application proposals. Mr Humphrey considers the planning issues.
2.1 Gardeners Lane is a single carriageway access road cul-de-sac to the north of the dismantled railway. It terminates at the Sulby River and it presently provides access to:-
Milntown Gatehouse Greenlands Poyll Dooey House the complete residential development of 51 houses at Auldyn Walk Poyll Dooey Nature Reserve the partially constructed EMI Unit The section of Gardeners Lane between Greenlands Avenue and the partially constructed roundabout to the north will be improved in order to provide a 5.5 metre wide carriageway with a local narrowing at the dismantled railway before the EMI Unit is brought into use later this year. Therefore, in accordance with the advice contained in Manx Roads, A Guide to the Design of Residential Roads, Footpaths, Parking and Services, 1993, Gardeners Lane will be appropriate to provide access to 100 dwellings. This number of dwellings is restricted so that the number of dwellings to which access is prevented in the unlikely event that the road is ever blocked will also be restricted. It has nothing to do with the traffic carrying capacity of the road which will be greatly in excess of that required to carry the traffic likely to be generated by 300 dwellings. Implementation of the application proposals to construct 45 dwellings will result in Gardeners Lane providing access to 99 dwellings, the EMI Unit and the Nature Reserve and hence it will continue to conform with the guidance contained in Manx Roads. 2.2 Vehicular access to the 45 dwellings on the application site is proposed by way of a traditional residential estate road with a 5.5 metre wide carriageway and 1.8 metre wide footways to both sides which meets the distributor road at a simple priority junction some 85.0 metres to the east of the roundabout on Gardeners Lane. At this junction, visibility splays with a minor road dimension
of 4.5 metres will be available along the distributor road to the roundabout to the west and over a distance of 90.0 metres to the east. Drivers using the junction will therefore have appropriate levels of visibility for it to operate both safely and conveniently. Footpath links will be available between the shared surface access roads within the development and the footway adjacent to what will become the southbound carriageway of the Gardeners Lane dual carriageway and these will reduce the walking distances between the proposed development and the existing development to the south of the railway, including the schools to both the north and south of Lezayre Road. It may be possible to provide a further footpath link between the shared surface access road at the southern end of the development, adjacent to Plot A9, and the footpath along the line of the dismantled railway, in order to further reduce the walking distance to the south but that would be subject to agreement with the adjacent landowner. 2.3 To the south of Greenlands Avenue, Gardeners Lane is a conventional dual carriageway type of road at its southern end, at its approach to Lezayre Road, and is two parallel access roads between that section of dual carriageway road and Greenlands Avenue. Access to development to both the north and the south of the dismantled railway is therefore available at all times in the unlikely event that one of its carriageways to the south of the dismantled railway is blocked because the other carriageway will remain available for use. Closure of Lezayre Road to allow both practice and racing during the TT and Grand Prix events typically occurs outside the peak periods of operation of the local highway network and when it does occur, the gate at the eastern end of Greenlands Avenue is opened to provide an alternative vehicular route between the development off Gardeners Lane and the centre of Ramsey. This route is not therefore typically required to carry peak period traffic flows as Lezayre Road is not closed to traffic at those times. 2.4 I carried out surveys between 7:30am and 9:30am and between 4:30pm and 6:30pm, on Tuesday 10 January, 2012, in order to establish both the present morning and evening peak period use of the junction of Gardeners Lane with
Lezayre Road, by both vehicles and pedestrians. The findings of the vehicular surveys are attached at Appendix BGH4 and they show that the two-way morning peak flow on Gardeners Lane, between 8:00am and 9:00am, was 185 vehicles and that the two-way evening peak flow, between 5:00pm and 6:00pm, was 199 vehicles. The flows on Lezayre Road were 505 vehicles to the east of the Gardeners Lane junction and 382 vehicles to the west during the morning peak period, and 470 vehicles to the east of the junction and 309 vehicles to the west during the evening peak period. In accordance with TA79/99, Traffic Capacity of Urban Roads, the two-way traffic carrying capacity of a road such as Lezayre Road, in the vicinity of its junction with Gardeners Lane, with a 7.0 metre wide carriageway, is some 1,600 vehicles per hour. Lezayre Road is therefore operating at some $30 \%$ of this flow during both the morning and evening peak periods and hence it will be operating at less during other hours of the day. There are therefore gaps in its traffic flows into which vehicles can emerge from side roads such as Gardeners Lane. I have analysed the existing morning and evening peak periods of operation of the junction using the Picady 5.1 program and the results of these analyses are attached at Appendix BGH5. They show that the junction presently operates well within its traffic carrying capacity during both these periods with maximum RFC values of 0.201 for Gardeners Lane during the morning peak period and 0.257 for Lezayre Road during the evening peak period. This confirms that the occasional queue of vehicles may form in either of the roads but that it clears within a few seconds. Typical delays for vehicles waiting to emerge from Gardeners Lane during the morning peak period and for vehicles waiting to turn right into Gardeners Lane during the evening peak period are both some 8-9 seconds. 2.5 The findings of the pedestrian surveys are also attached at Appendix BGH4 and they show that one adult walked along Gardeners Lane during each of the morning and evening peak periods and one or two walked along Lezayre Road in the vicinity of the junction during each of these periods. 2.6 I have previously carried out surveys in Kirk Michael, Onchan and Ramsey and
they all show that residential development in Isle of Man typically generates 0.6-0.8 vehicles per dwelling during the morning and evening peak periods of operation of the local highway network. My assessment of the impact of the traffic likely to be generated by the 45 dwellings on the application site is therefore based on the highest rate of this range in order that it considers the highest level of traffic which the proposed development is likely to generate. On the basis of a rate of 0.8 vehicles per dwelling, the proposed development of 45 dwellings will generate some 36 vehicles during both the morning and evening peak periods as set out at Appendix BGH6 and less at other times of the day. 2.7 This traffic will all use Gardeners Lane and I have assigned it to Lezayre Road on the basis of observed turning traffic flows at the junction. The resulting assigned flows for both the morning and evening peak periods are also attached at Appendix BGH6 and they show that 29 additional vehicles will use Lezayre Road to the east of the junction and 8 will use it to the west of the junction during the morning peak period and that 32 additional vehicles will use Lezayre Road to the east of the junction and 4 will use it to the west of the junction during the evening peak periods. The addition of the assigned flows to the existing flows gives the predicted flows likely to pass through the junction and they are also attached at Appendix BGH6. They show that the two-way flows on Gardeners Lane will increase to 221 vehicles per hour during the morning peak period and 235 vehicles per hour during the evening peak period. The flows on Lezayre Road to the east of the junction will increase to 534 and 502 vehicles per hour at these times of day and those to the west of the junction will increase to 389 and 313 vehicles per hour. Lezayre Road will therefore continue to operate at some 30-35\% of its traffic carrying capacity at these peak times of day, and, as occurs at present, there will be gaps in its flows into which traffic can emerge from Gardeners Lane. 2.8 I have analysed the operation of the junction when carrying these predicted flows for the morning and evening peak periods and the results are attached at Appendix BGH7. They show that the junction will continue to operate with
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