Copthorne Local Action Team (LAT) Update

10th April 2009

Report by Peter Chatfield, Chairman, Copthorne LAT

As you are probably aware, the LAT activities are based entirely on issues and concerns raised by residents and all our work revolves around a close working partnership with the police and other County and local agencies. The three main priority issues we have been working on over the past few years are:
(1) the serious misuse of our inadequate village roads by the high volume of HGVs using our roads, in the main, as a “cut through” to and from the M23 and in particular Shipley Bridge Lane
(2) speeding traffic and
(3) litter around the village.

It is very pleasing to be able to report considerable progress with all these projects, which would not have been possible without a great deal of hard work by our very committed team, residents, local councils, organisations and most importantly of all, West Sussex County Council, Highways and our County Local Committee ( CLC ).

The HGV issue

This has been probably our major project over these past few years and it was extremely encouraging to be present at the meeting of our area West Sussex CC County Local Committee on 6th April to hear that final approval was given for the long awaited legally enforceable Weight Restriction order to be introduced for HGV’s on Shipley Bridge Lane.
The final stage now, which will understandably take a few weeks, will involve WSCC Highways in the positioning of all the necessary signage around the village (including the Surrey CC end of Shipley Bridge Lane) and to set up electronic monitoring devices for assessing HGV traffic on all our village roads. Great attention will be given of course to Copthorne Bank. The monitoring of traffic on Copthorne Bank is of particular interest to us following the approval for the expansion of the Clay Hall Lane Waste site at the end of last year by SCC.
It will be extremely important to record HGV movements on Copthorne roads once the TRO is in place. It is essential that full details are recorded, including operating company name, route of vehicle (e.g. SBL to Brookhill Road or perhaps Brookhill Road into Copthorne Bank), date, time and registration number of vehicle. All this information is essential to pass on to the appropriate authorities.

Speeding Traffic

Speedwatch has continued very successfully over the past 3 years thanks entirely to the efforts of our dedicated team of operators.
In general local drivers and residents have been extremely supportive of the scheme and there has been a noticeable reduction of speeding by local vehicles recorded.
Summary analysis provided by Sussex police shows that over 75% of the speeding vehicles recorded by our Speedwatch team are registered from outside the village, once again indicating that our village roads are being used as a “cut through”. The Traffic police have continued to support our work by carrying out official speed checks around our village from time to time, as resources allow. Our project has also been supported by WSCC Highways over these past few months with trials of their mobile flashing light system and speed indication device (SID), at various locations around the village. As a result of these trials with the mobile SID, the LAT have now asked WSCC Highways to investigate the possibility of introducing permanent speed indicating lights on at least some of the entrance roads into the village.
We have been informed that funding has been found for 2 or 3 such signs and shortly electronic speed monitoring will be installed to verify the speeding problem at some of those locations. Please appreciate this all takes time but at least we have the support once again of the WSCC Highways and Transport department and good progress is being achieved.

Litter

As many of you are aware the LAT introduced weekly litter collections (in term time) around the village with small groups of children from our Junior School. The school and parents have been extremely supportive of this scheme as it does not only help to keep our village a little bit tidier but is used to help educate the children of the importance of caring for their environment. Once again this project would not have been possible without the help of a few dedicated adults taking the children out each week.
Again these projects have to be funded for the purchase of equipment, both for the children’s safety and collection of the litter, and we would like to thank both Worth Parish Council and our WSCC CLC once again for support with this necessary funding. Thank you to all the residents who have encouraged the children when they have been out on their weekly litter collections. We have noticed of late that dog owners have been helping by clearing up dog mess, but could we ask that all dog owners help in this way as dog mess can be extremely dangerous to children’s health and obviously is not too pleasant to clean up as well.

If you have any information concerning HGV movements please use the CVA contact point or contact the LAT directly through myself, Peter Chatfield 01342 712010, e-mail peter-bettychatfield@tiscali.co.uk

Thank you all for your interest and support of the LAT work.