Woodbridge Thoroughfare Consultation’s three options for signs. Click to download full details
Come to Woodbridge Library, 25th September to 1 October 2017, and help decide the best way forward for Woodbridge’s Thoroughfare.
The Thoroughfare – Woodbridge’s vibrant retail heart – has had increasing problems with traffic and parking in recent years. Residents, visitors, shoppers and traders have all expressed concern
Our Problem: is that both access toand parking in Woodbridge Thoroughfare is governed by a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO). It’s complicated, years out of date, and no longer fit for purpose. The traffic signs we can put up are legally prescribed by the TRO. This means they are very complicated too.
The TRO no longer reflects the needs and usage of people in the Thoroughfare.
The Solution: We need to simplify the Thoroughfare TRO and make sure it reflects the current needs of people in Woodbridge. We can then have simpler signs.
The Thoroughfare Working Group has worked hard for ten months looking at the needs and requirements of traders, residents, visitors and shoppers. We have come up with three options:
Consultation Questionnaire. Click to download. When finished, either a) drop it in at library before Sunday 1 Oct b) scan or photograph and email to Caroline.page@suffolk.gov.uk or c) post to Caroline Page, 117 Ipswich Rd, Woodbridge IP12 4BY
Now we want you to fill in a questionnaire to tell us which option you think will work best for everyone who uses the Woodbridge Thoroughfare. (Remember, at the moment, we are interested in which option you prefer. We will get to enforcement later.)
So, this is a lot of work. Why not just leave things as they are? This is not an option:
Many people say, “All we need’s a Traffic Warden”. Traffic wardens were abolished THIRTEEN YEARS ago under the Traffic Management Act 2004, which passed the responsibility for enforcing on-street violations to the police.
Off-street parking in Woodbridge carparks is enforced by parking attendants employed by SCDC. Many people confuse these with traffic wardens, but SCDC parking attendants could only tackle on-street violations if and when our District Council decriminalises parking and takes responsibility for it
Suffolk Coastal will finally be taking over responsibility for on-street parking in 2019
However, if Woodbridge does not make changes to the current Thoroughfare TRO, the current level of non-enforcement will not continue. Unless we decide changes, the current TRO lines etc will just be repainted and all the current regulations will be enforced as they currently stand by SCDC when it takes over from the police.
SCDC will not be able to cherry-pick the dead or unnecessary regulations. As the TRO is significantly out of date this could cause major problems.
There are other considerations that need to be looked at in any decision-making:
ACCESS: Research by the TWG has discovered that a significant number of residential homes and retail properties only have accessfrom the Thoroughfare.
CHANGING DELIVERY/RETAIL PATTERNS: when the current TRO was designed, there were no Tesco/Ocado/Amazon deliveries. Retailers would receive weekly deliveries from large lorries. When it cameinto force, Woodbridge had a Wednesday half-day. Now many traders open 7 days a week,
DISABLED ACCESS: a summer 2017 survey by the Suffolk Coastal Disability Forum disclosed that the access lost to disabled people by on-street parking in the Thoroughfare outweighed the access gained by disabled on-street parking
WIDTH of PARKING BAYS: one marked bay in the Thoroughfare (the ex-Sant-Studio bay ) is too narrow for modern vehicles
INCREASE IN SIZE of VEHICLES: modern cars are very much wider than cars were two or three decades ago. This means that parking has greater impact on pedestrians and other traffic
3 thoughts on “Join the CONSULTATION & improve the THOROUGHFARE”
The biggest issue is that on a Saturday morning there is a lethal mixture of shoppers – including families – & traffic between 9 & 10am. There should be NO traffic at all allowed on a Saturday morning.
Caroline – do you know if any research has been done around applying a similar model to that of Felixstowe high street? (basically making it an assault course of planters, seating, bike racks etc, with no defined road or footpath). It seems to have worked there – vehicle access is possible, but it’s such as hassle that most people choose another route. However, the space is much wider in Felixstowe, so I’m not sure how this would translate to Woodbridge. If it was viable, it would mean the signs, regulations, and enforcement wouldn’t be required at all.
Caroline Page, LibDem County Councillor for Woodbridge
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The biggest issue is that on a Saturday morning there is a lethal mixture of shoppers – including families – & traffic between 9 & 10am. There should be NO traffic at all allowed on a Saturday morning.
Please fill in the questionnaire and recister your feelings -tho I suspect the residents in thr Thoroughfare might object to ykur viewpoint
Caroline – do you know if any research has been done around applying a similar model to that of Felixstowe high street? (basically making it an assault course of planters, seating, bike racks etc, with no defined road or footpath). It seems to have worked there – vehicle access is possible, but it’s such as hassle that most people choose another route. However, the space is much wider in Felixstowe, so I’m not sure how this would translate to Woodbridge. If it was viable, it would mean the signs, regulations, and enforcement wouldn’t be required at all.