Over Needs a Crossing : But Figures Don't Add Up

High Street is on a school route. People told me they felt unsafe crossing this road. I provided a traffic/pedestrian count for the Council Safety Department, and requested a feasibility study for a pedestrian crossing.

On 1 July I received the information from Andy Swallowe, School Crossing Patrol Manager, which was mentioned in Kirsty Gilliland's email of 18 June. He had carried out a 30- minute morning survey on 19 May and a 30-minute afternoon survey on 3 June. These were done at ‘peak’ time. A formula is then applied to the numbers. He advised that the resulting PV² total was below the minimum requirement, and the request was therefore rejected.

The following are extracts from my response, also copied to Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive, Cambridgeshire County Council:

'Your email to me states that 'The assessment showed that the peak times were 08.30 – 09.00 and 15.10 – 15.40 respectively.' My count covered double your time, but the figures more than doubled, indicating that your information - and therefore the formulated results - cannot be correct. Traffic flow, your formula basis, varies greatly according to the A14 situation. There are frequent delays and closures, causing traffic to take alternative 'faster' routes through the villages.'

'when you chose the days for your traffic/pedestrian counts, did you check whether these days were typical? Did you take into account extracurricular activities? Were you aware that from 8.00 - 8.45 on Tuesday mornings there is Gym Club and Maths Club. Also that on Wednesday afternoons there is Football Club, Gardening Club, Boys Street Dance and Girls Street Dance and Mad Science Club? Children attending these activities on those days would not have been included in your figures.'

'By restricting your count to 8.30-9.00 am you would also have failed to include children crossing High Street on their way to Swavesey College.'

'As a crossing patrol outside the school would not address the problems of crossing High Street, nor assist pedestrians crossing at other than school times, would you please arrange a 12 hour traffic count to assess the feasibility of a pedestrian crossing.'

I have received acknowledgement from Mark Lloyd, who has noted and passed the information to David Frost, Head of Road Safety Services. Andy Swallowe has emailed that ‘it would be beneficial for us both if we could discuss this matter over the phone’. On reflection, I have advised him that this matter is too important to be discussed on the phone and everything should be in writing. Further information will be provided as available.
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Wot No Post Office???

The mobile post office started in Over on 22nd June much to the delight of all the people to whom I have spoken. The friendly workers were pleased by our positive welcome. Alas, it couldn’t come on Wednesday and Thursday because a security bolt had jammed in the driver's side door, requiring the windscreen to be smashed to gain entry. The replacement windscreen had to be obtained from Edinburgh.

An explanatory notice went up in the lay-by and Andie Harper at Cambridgeshire Radio announced the setback. One of the organisers came to apologise to and reassure customers. It’s a shame a problem happened so soon after the service started but it was just one of those unfortunate things.

On Friday morning, when normal service resumed, a local Councillor welcomed the post office staff with news that she had allegedly had many complaints about their service interruption. I wonder how many complaints she had in the ten months when we had no post office and what she did about that! Did this complaining Councillor explain that unavoidable things happen? Did she explain that we should be grateful to the people at St James Church, Hemingford Grey for their efforts and not complain about an occasional problem? Without them, we would have no post office service in the village at all on any day!

In fact, the information that the Councillor passed on to the post office staff shows how quickly the service has been accepted as an integral part of village life, if 'many' people felt the necessity to contact her to comment on its absence.

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