The SUDBURY SOCIETY

Caring for the Past and the Future

Redesigning the Bell Vue Roundabout LATEST April 2009

 Suffolk Highways authority commissioned a report on ways of improving pedestrian safety at the Belle Vue roundabout and in King Street and  on whether the roundabout could be redesigned to allow traffic from Great Eastern Road to proceed directly into Newton Road. The report indicated that the latter idea would involve installing traffic lights and would seriously impede traffic flows into the roundabout.

A redesign seems unlikely now and the only likely changes are a number of zebra crossings around the edge of the roundabout and in King Street outside Huffers. Below is the text of our response to Suffolk Highways. 

"We have to say that after a long wait for a solution we are disappointed with the outcome which appears to offer little more than a collection of zebra crossings and the retention of a lot of unused hard surfaces within the roundabout.

Clearly the outcome results from the brief given to the consultants by Suffolk Highways. We have to question whether the brief was appropriate to the town’s real needs. A brief which stressed the overriding importance of reducing traffic through Sudbury’s historic core  (Old Market Place, Market Hill and Gainsborough Street) might have produced a very different outcome.

It may be an oversight on our part but we could not locate any statistics quantifying the proportion of traffic leaving the roundabout and entering King Street/East Street in order to reach Newton Road. After all, such traffic adds to the weight of vehicle movement in Girling Street which the consultants felt ruled out a solution involving the redesign of the roundabout to allow direct access to Newton Road- something that the Society has long argued for.

As it is the town centre is set to become more congested – rising level of car ownership, housing developments in hand and awaiting approval, inadequate public transport, will all contribute. Nothing in these proposals will improve this situation.

Moving to the recommendations we were very surprised that the problems created by traffic streams merging and crossing in King Street were not addressed. Indeed they would be exacerbated by the proposals to reduce the  length of roadway at this point and add of the formal “double” pedestrian crossing.

As a Society we are committed to resisting and even trying to reverse the steady deterioration in the quality of the townscape – you will remember that we sent you recommendations designed to reduce the clutter of No Entry signs which disfigure the lower end of Market Hill. We must therefore object to the proposed crossing in King Street. This is a key entry point into the town with St Peter’s as the backdrop - black and white lines and continuously flashing lights would be highly intrusive. Instead we suggest a change of surfacing and pinch points to slow traffic and give pedestrians greater safety in crossing.

Turning to the crossings at Belle Vue we welcome the proposal to install one at the beginning of Cornard Road but we feel that three crossing are essential at the beginning of Newton Road- one of the three is omitted on alternative layout 002. It is essential that all three are in place allowing pedestrians direct access from outside the rear of the Pied Cow PH across to Belle Vue house and park."

LATEST

Suffolk Highways have promised to look afresh at this junction but it is not included in the recently announced £1 million package of road improvements half of which is allocated to a revamp of the Bus Station

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