Marlborough Town Council
Port Hill/A346
Consultation: pedestrian crossing point
We are asking residents to help us find a safer way for people to cross the busy A346 in Marlborough, at the top of Port Hill between Marlborough Common and residential areas at The Thorns, The Acres, Rabley Wood View and Hawthorn Meadow.
We want to hear from people who cross here and from people who don't - but who might, if the current crossing point was improved.
Our survey contains 8 very short questions, and is anonymous.
The survey closes at the end of September. If you would prefer to fill in a paper survey, copies are available from the Library, Town Council Office, the shop at Baylie Acre and the visitor information point and community fridge in George Lane car park.
Background
A petition was handed in to the Town Council in 2020, which was fully supported by Councillors.
Wiltshire Council carried out a traffic survey which identified an issue with speeding in this location. However, it was deemed too unsafe for the Police to conduct enforcement. The Town Council installed a column to hold a speed indicator device (SID) at Port Hill. Evidence suggests this has had a calming effect on the speed of traffic, but the issue of crossing the road safely has not gone away.
The issue remains with Wiltshire Council's Local Highway and Footway Improvements Group, a subgroup of the Community Area Board which deals specifically with highway issues.
Wiltshire Council's current view is that a pedestrian count of people crossing the road is required to justify changes such as putting in a light controlled crossing at this location. Our concern is that this count will come back with a negative outcome because we know some people AVOID crossing at this point because they don't feel safe doing so. Because of this, Wiltshire Council has agreed that we can undertake our own consultation, which is what we are doing now.
For more information, please read our press release.