Traffic & highways
Traffic argument
Misleading traffic analysis
The Planning Committee asked the applicant to revisit their assessment of the impact on traffic exiting the development. Their position is that the traffic resulting from 290 more homes would have only a negligible negative impact when exiting to the Odd Down roundabout. This is based on their traffic modelling which concluded that the maximum waiting time on the southern approach to the roundabout would be only 15 seconds. The applicant's survey failed to validate their results against actual current traffic volumes. South Stoke Parish Council commissioned their own survey from a leading traffic consultant which reaches massively different conclusions. This survey observed current queue times of up to 12 minutes. A 40 fold difference!
The failure by the applicant to validate their traffic modelling output with actual observed queue lengths goes against standard industry practice. The junction models used by the applicant are deeply flawed and are designed to model junctions in isolation, not a complex interconnected network such as in the Odd Down area. The same model is being used to do their future projections which means that the results are meaningless.
B&NES Highways department position
B&NES Highways Dept has accepted the applicant's data and findings, and while accepting the South Stoke Parish Council report shows longer waiting times, they have not acknowledged the scale of the difference or the flaws in the applicant’s traffic models.
They have declined to meet and discuss the surveys and have failed to apply rigorous scrutiny to the applicant's claims.
