Road Safety Updates

As a parish council we are working hard to progress safety measures for our residents, and have a number of different initiatives underway. On this page we’ll keep you updated with our progress on each.

A671 Main Road

We campaigned for LCC and the police to use their speed detection equipment along the A671 to get up-to-date data on the amount of traffic we have and the speed it does. We also wanted to capture the times of day that heavy traffic is coming through the village.

Due to the extensive roadworks we have endured so far this year in 2024 we have not been able to continue with our data collection on the main road. However, with that hopefully now behind us we are investigating renting or buying a SPID, this would give us the data we need to prove our need for better road safety measures on our village.

Ribble Valley Joint Parish Working Group for Road Safety

A group of Ribble Valley parish councils have united to work together in putting a joint proposal to Lancashire County Council for a series of ideas that could improve safety on our roads. Simonstone Parish Council is participating with this,  Cllrs Hampson and Duckworth, are doing the necessary paperwork and meeting attendances.

Originally the group, led by Bolton-by-Boland parish, were invited to campaign for a 20mph limit on all village residential roads. However, as many of the parishes being consulted already had 20mph areas and different road safety issues the brief was widened.

The whole parish council has been consulted and kept up to date with progress. Once we have feedback from LCC we’ll then know which ideas to move forward to public consultation. At the moment though, we need to find out which ideas are feasible and could in theory be done if residents supported it.

Progress update:

  1. Simonstone Parish Council submitted 5 locations to be considered for road safety improvements, by the October 2023 deadline.
  2. The project manager submitted the combined parish locations in one report to LCC.
  3. County Councillors Rupert Swarbrick and Ged Mirfin have confirmed to Cllr Hampson that a meeting was being held at LCC in May 2024 to discuss the bids and outline which could be taken a step further for site inspections. So if you see any LCC high-vis vests out and about let us know.
  4. Awaiting LCC feedback on our 5 locations to be considered.
  5. Will be chasing at the end of the month if we haven’t heard anything by then.

Site Inspection Reports Submitted by SPC:

  1. Location 1: Whins Lane at junction with Whins Lane
  2. Location 2: Trapp Lane transition into School Lane & Clough Lane
  3. Location 3: Crossing for A671 near St Peter’s primary school
  4. Location 4: Simonstone Lane
  5. Location 5: Woodfields

 

Slow Down Save Lives

This campaign by Lancashire County Council has been running for a number of years now. You can see their bright yellow signs with ‘Slow Down Save Lives’ around Simonstone and Read, and the wider Lancashire area.
LCC Councillors and SPC Councillor Hampson stand behind a Slow Down Save Lives banner at the initiative's launch in November 21.

Do you want to host a banner for 2-3 weeks?

If your home has a wall or fence to which we could tie a ‘Slow Down Save Lives’ banner for a couple of weeks do get in touch with us. We’re not supposed to leave them anywhere longer than 3 months at a time, so that people don’t get used to them or they get classed as permanent signage. However, if you can offer a temporary home to a banner do please get in touch.

Bin Stickers for Slow Down Save Lives

We also have stickers for your bins (shown in the picture above on the righthand side), they’re a bit bigger than A4 paper in length, and are designed to go on your wheelie bins. The idea is that even if once a week people see them as they drive past the bins, then it’s a good reminder to slow down, especially on our residential roads.

Bypass

Click here to view our bypass funding bid application.

Safe Lanes Signs

Borough Councillor Peplow has organised some temporary homemade safety signs from Pendle. He’s liaising with a landowner about placing one along Trapp Lane. In the meantime, our thanks to Mr Whitwell of Law Farm for allowing us to place one near Wickentree Row. Assisting B/Cllr Peplow is Cllr Pollard.

 

Author: Cllr Jacqueline Hampson