Oakley Green, Fifield and District Community Association Ltd
Roads & Transport - Update Report 15
July 2020 - Update Report 15 - Weight Restrictions, Speed Limit Reductions, 16A Bus
7.5 tonne Weight Restrictions: The weight restrictions signs have finally gone up on the Oakley Green Road but, sadly, we are seeing flagrant abuse of the new regulations with heavy vehicles ignoring the signs and continuing to use this route. Now that the Covid -19 restrictions have slightly relaxed we have been able to organise a lorry watch and the first one took place on 1 July. We had teams at two locations, John Train’s entrance and outside the Braywood Hall, and over two hours recorded errant vehicles. We will now contact the hauliers and remind them of the restrictions. The residents of Fifield Road will not be surprised to learn that we also recorded several lorries using that road too and crossing towards the Drift Road. Many local residents have offered to do their own lorry watches at times to suit them and then report back to us. Obviously, the more information we get the better and we will gradually identify the worst offenders and report them to Trading Standards. Lorry Watch forms are now available on our website.

Speed Limit Reductions: A big disappointment is that the Police have refused to support the reduction in speed limit on the Oakley Green Road to 30mph and therefore this has not been implemented. We intend to challenge this decision. We have also asked for a reduction in the speed limit on the northern end of the Fifield Road where it is national speed limit. We intend to conduct a series of speed watches in both areas to gather yet more evidence that these reductions in speed are necessary.

16A Bus: In the last newsletter we were answering concerns from residents that the local bus service was under threat. Thank you to all those who responded to our appeal for information on bus use. We have made enquires and can find no evidence to suggest that the service is in jeopardy. The current agreement with RBWM lasts until 2022 so there should be no changes until the license is up for renewal.

You may be interested to know that the Parish have instigated air quality monitors in various locations around the Parish. The first two months data has been collected but further surveys will be postponed until traffic movements have returned to a more normal level.

Finally, the Bray Parish Council will be launching a survey in their next newsletter to ask for your views on traffic in the Parish and how it affects you. We urge you to take the time to complete this survey. As with anything, it is so important to have concrete evidence when arguing for any money to be spent on improvements in infrastructure.