21 November 2007
Dear Mr Plaskitt
Thank you for your letter of 20 November 2007
to John Deegan. This has been passed to me for attention.
Narrow Hall Meadow is part of the Chase Meadow
residential development in South West Warwick. It is served by
Stagecoach bus service 68 which currently enters the area from
Hampton Road via Purser Drive and Narrow Hall Meadow turning at the
roundabout with Morecroft Drive and retracing its route back to
Hampton Road. It operates half hourly on weekdays only roughly
between 0700 and 1900hrs each day. It links the area with Warwick
Parkway Station, Warwick and Leamington town centres, Shires Retail
Park, Warwick Technology Park and Tachbrook Park Drive industrial
area. The service relies heavily on developer funding.
Ultimately, the route will link through from
Hampton Road to Stratford Road along Purser Drive and a proposed
connecting road through to Edge Hill Drive. Funding of the service
is, however, dependant on providing an interim service. It is also
important to provide an alternative to car use from an early stage
of occupancy.
In practical terms, this has proved difficult.
The original route via Purser Drive, Verden avenue and Morecroft
Drive was abandoned as it was not possible to agree bus stop
locations in Morecroft Drive. A shorter route turning at the Verden
Avenue and Morecroft Drive roundabout was adopted.
This provided sufficient penetration of the
area to permit the Council to continue drawing down funding, but was
unpopular with some local residents who applied pressure to have the
service taken away from Verden Avenue.
For a short period of time, the current route
was adopted, but this had to be temporarily suspended as the poor
road surface and makeshift calming was causing damage to buses.
Verden Avenue again became the terminus.
In September, following some improvement to the
roads, the current route was reintroduced.
I have recently visited the area to look at the
bus operation. Narrow Hall Meadow is no more narrow than many
residential roads that are used by buses. The final road surface is
yet to be applied, so the surface is somewhat uneven but drivers
were adjusting their speed to cope with this. After 1800hrs, there
are large numbers of cars parked on the street and on the outer edge
of the roundabout Narrow Hall Meadow/Morecroft Drive.
I am aware that Mr Cleaver’s car has been
damaged while parked in Narrow Hall Meadow at around 1900hrs in the
evening. He has copied me in to emails sent to Stagecoach. These
include photographs of damage which show paint markings of a similar
colour to the livery of a Stagecoach bus. However, the resolution of
the issue of liability for the accident is a matter for Mr Cleaver’s
and Stagecoach’s insurers and not the County Council.
To conclude, there are no practical
alternatives to using the roads Purser Drive, Verden Avenue, Narrow
Hall Meadow and Morecroft Drive in providing a bus service in this
area. Usage of the service is small but growing. If the Council were
unable to maintain a bus service in the area, funding would be lost
which would impact on the level of service along other parts of the
route including Hatton park and Hampton Magna. I have sought to
reassure non bus users in Narrow Hall Meadow that the use of this
road is only temporary and will cease when the road network is
complete and usable.
Yours sincerely
Dave Matthews, Operations Manager (South &
Central)
Transport Operations Group
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