Report on Fazeley traffic movements
Not perfect but all in all Drayton Manor Park travel management group doing its job well…
I’ve written a lot over the past two years about the traffic and travel problems in Fazeley and the future growth of Drayton Manor Park.
In the last week I’ve received a comprehensive report on the traffic movements for the season just finished.
Matthew Ellis with Colin Bryan of Drayton Manor Park
It was the back end of 2008 after a series of talks with the owners of Drayton Manor Park, Staffordshire Highways, national Highways Agency and Staffordshire Police that I reached agreement to establish a project to tackle the traffic congestion problems in a more structured way.
So, in February 2009 the Travel Management Group was formerly established and Drayton Manor Park commissioned a specialist company to coordinate things and provide expert technical advice and information.
Over the last 9 months a series of measures have been put in place involving new signage on the M6Toll, changes in signage on the motorway networks around Birmingham, Warwickshire and Tamworth, new entry and exit arrangements to the theme park and new car parks inside the Manor funded to the tune of nearly £400k by the owners.
The result is a general improvement to traffic flows in the area despite a very large increase in visitor numbers to Drayton Manor Park. But there were a couple of serious blips in August which again brought the area to a halt.
Those, however were not the result of Park numbers but were caused by a utility company carrying out emergency roadworks near to the traffic lights in Mile Oak. Absolute madness at the busiest visitor times for the Park and I’m not entirely convinced it was the level of emergency that warranted the resulting gridlock which Drayton Manor Park got the blame for.
Growing visitor numbers to the Park
As a result of the report just completed more tweaks will be made to operations and signage and, above all, Staffordshire Highways will be much tougher on allowing utility companies to carry out any works which could cause traffic chaos in the area at key Park visitor times.
The report does prove what worked and what didn’t but overall it paints a pretty positive picture. It’s now down to the national Highways Agency to agree to turn the pilot signage schemes on motorways into permanent ones and I’ll play my part in making sure that happens.
There are also plans afoot to improve local signage in the Mile Oak area to stop coaches following their sat-navs onto the Deer Park estate and improvements for next season to public transport to encourage visitors from further afield to use new special train services to Tamworth and then by shuttle bus to the Park.
All in all I’m pleased with the work done and really pleased that with the help of several agencies there is a much clearer picture of how traffic in the area moves during busy and quieter times. And that is the most important thing to ensure onging improvements.
What is clear still as a result of this is the need for traffic infrastructure improvement for the wider Ventura Park area and probably the Fazeley island by the Town Hall. I’ll press for that next year although the national finances mean that budget may be even harder to find. We’ll have a go though.
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4 comments
Mr Ellis, thanks for your work on this very difficult issue. We travel through the area rather than live there but I must say that the regular and very long queues we experienced late afternoon most days during busy periods last year have been very much less this year. They haven’t disapperared completely but a step in the right direction. I trust people will balance the local job benefits with waht is now an acceptable minor inconvenience at times.
I have previously written to Drayton manor Park [DMP], Tamworth, specifically in relation to the ongoing problem of drivers using sat-nav systems being directed on to the Deer Park/Reindeer road estate at Fazeley.
Sat-navs are directing traffic towards the back lane of Drayton Manor, which comes out at Fallow Rd/Reindeer rd junction. Drayton Manor have done their bit, by placing no-entry signs at the entrance to the lane and making it a one way road [for traffic exiting the estate only]. However this means that the traffic coming onto the estate now drive down reindeer road/ dama rd and/or sambar rd looking for the entrance to DMP, before realising their mistake and exiting back onto Lichfield street again, further congesting that junction.
My experience is mainly limited to the traffic coming into Dama Rd, but having spoken to many local friends and neighbours, I know that those living in Reindeer Rd and Sambar Rd suffer from the disruption even more. If a traffic survey were undertaken between 0930am and 12 midday then it would show hundreds of cars coming onto the estate every day, wrongly directed by their sat-navs, looking for Drayton manor Park
There will be a serious accident in the near future. Young children regularly play in my particular street, Dama Road, which is usually a very quiet estate road. In the past we have had coaches, minibuses and convoys of up to 5 cars driving down the road, turning around then driving back again. These drivers either tend to be driving very slowly because they are unsure as to where they are, and may pull up suddenly to consult a map or re-programme their sat navs, or they are driving very fast because they are frustrated that they have taken a wrong turn and are anxious to get the park. The situation is even worse on Thursday mornings when we have the refuse and recycling lorries on the estate. Add to this the tractors that sometimes need access to the field at the end of Dama Rd, plus we also have horses from a nearby field that are regularly walked through the estate, and you have an accident waiting to happen.
There is a simple solution to this which would help matters, which would be to put up a brown tourist sign on Lichfield Strret at the junction with Fallow Road for traffic coming south along the A5 from Mile Oak towards Fazeley. The sign just has to direct them to go straight on towards Fazeley [instead of turning right into fallow rd]. I know that some people will still blindly follow their sat-navs without looking at signs, but on the other hand if people see the sign, they have some reassurance that they are on the right road and hopefully a good proportion of those will not turn onto the estate.
Do we have to wait until there is a serious accident or someone is killed before this sign is erected?
Re sat-navs and Drayton Manor Park. Work has been done to get the sat-nav info changed but of course that won’t work unless they are updated.
Signs are shortly being put up which should stop the problems of drivers going onto Deer Park. Surprised they aren’t up yet so I’ll chase the matter up.
I live on Drayton Manor Drive and things are much better now that the no entry signage is up,and we are very grateful for that.All we need now is another sign asking people to take their dog mess home with them,instead of leaving it alongside the brook for my kids to get covered in ,and I may even vote Tory next time!
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