Pedestrian crossings recommended on grid road

The council is set to place street-level pedestrian crossings on a grid road despite objections over safety.

Officers employed by Milton Keynes Council (MKC) have recommended that crossings be included at the new traffic light controlled junctions to be built on the V4, Watling Street and H4, Dansteed Way.

The officers dismissed calls for underpasses or footbridges as they would 'expose the council to substantial additional construction and land costs.'

They claim it would be difficult to change existing development plans in the Western Expansion Area (WEA) to fit such crossings in and underpasses would require the council to use Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) to obtain land on the eastern side of the V4.

The recommendations are to be discussed in a meeting of the cabinet committee next Tuesday (October 28).

They will provide access to the new homes and facilities in the Western Expansion Area (WEA), south of Stony Stratford, for cyclists and pedestrians.

Theo Chalmers, chair and founder of Urban Eden, which campaigns to preserve the original master plan of Milton Keynes, said the officers have ignored the public and many councillors' calls to save the grid roads.

"The recommendation flies in the face of the council's own cross-party environment policy development committee (EPDC), which voted for underpasses," he said.

"If the cabinet passes these recommendations it will destroy the grid road.

"The crossings will make the traffic lights red for longer, causing traffic to back up and forcing drivers to use other roads."

He added that the report is misleading as it suggests street-level crossings would cost the council nothing and the use of underpasses is made to look unnecessarily complex.

John Hawthorn, a member of Urban Eden and local parish councillor, said any short term cost savings will be paid for in pedestrian casualties, particularly children travelling from Two Mile Ash to the new senior school planned in the WEA.

Philip Wharton, councillor for Stony Stratford added: "MKC owns vast acres of land on the WEA so costs of installing underpasses should not be a problem as it should be borne out from the sale of farmland that MKC own."