A bid for improved safety on an A-road crossing ‘too unsafe for police action’ has taken a step forward.
Marlborough Town Council has launched a consultation in a bid to find safer ways for people to cross the A346 at the top of Port Hill between the Common and residential areas near The Thorns, The Acres, Rabley Wood View, and Hawthorn Meadow.
The A-road is frequented by high levels of traffic and is a route often used by HGVs.
A spokesperson for the town council said: “Our consultation survey will help us to understand who uses the current crossing point.
“We want to hear from those who do and those who don’t use it – but who might, if they felt it was safer.”
Calls for safer measures to get across the A-road have been running since at least 2020, when a resident created a petition for a safer crossing point which was signed and supported by over 600 people.
Wiltshire Council later carried out a traffic survey which identified an issue with speeding in this location.
The town council said it was deemed too unsafe for the police to conduct enforcement.
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This year, the town council installed a column to hold a Speed Indicator Device on Port Hill, and has said evidence suggests this has had a calming effect on the speed of traffic, though the issue of crossing the road safely has not gone away.
This issue remains with Wiltshire Council’s Local Highways and Footways Improvement Group, a Wiltshire Council subgroup of the Community Area Board which deals specifically with highway issues.
The spokesperson for the town council continued: “Wiltshire Council’s current view is that a pedestrian count is required to inform them whether a pedestrian crossing is needed.
“We believe this to be counter intuitive as residents may not use the crossing because it is unsafe, meaning the figures from any count of people crossing at this point might be misleading.
“Wiltshire Council has agreed that we can undertake our own consultation with residents which is what we are doing now.”
The town council has now embarked upon what it describes as a “quest for action” by launching the survey.
The online survey will be available until the end of September, and consists of only eight questions.
Paper copies are also available and can be obtained from locations around Marlborough including the library and town council office.
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