With regards to the Active travel Scheme in Heavitree, can you confirm if the Council Road safety officer was asked to provide a report into the proposed cessation of the trial.
If they were, please provide this report.
If they were not please provide the rationale for not either asking or awaiting this report before the recommendation to stop the trial.
The officers responsible for approving the Cabinet report have overall accountability for road safety and did not ask team members to provide a report into the cessation of the trial. The officer recommendation was to suspend the trial, which meant returning the roads to their original arrangements, i.e. removing the modal filters in place at Ladysmith Road, St Marks Avenue, Hamlin Lane, Whipton Lane and Vaughan Road. The road safety data demonstrates that prior to the trial commencing, there was not an historic road safety collision problem across the Heavitree and Whipton Barton active streets trial area (i.e. the network within the boundary roads).
Formal comment from the Road Safety team was therefore not considered necessary as reverting back to the previous highway arrangements, where there was no history of a poor road safety record, was not expected to increase the risk of harm.
The recommendation approved at Exeter HATOC was an amendment brought forward by Members of the committee. It stated that the retention of the planters in the Active Streets area would be subject to a Road Safety Audit. This is being undertaken by the road safety team and will inform a suitable layout for any retained planters to ensure that all road users are able to use the local network safely.