WATERINGBURY ZEBRA CROSSING COMES A STEP NEARER

12.00.00am GMT Thu 9th Dec 2004

Zebra Crossing a step nearer

The campaign for a zebra crossing of Bow Road, Wateringbury received a boost on Tuesday when County and Borough Councillors agreed to include the scheme in a list of projects to be completed next year. The County Council has agreed to include the crossing in its Local Transport Plan to Government. This is a list of Highways projects submitted by KCC to Government, asking for Governmental approval to borrow the money to pay for the works to be carried out.

Addressing the Members of the Tonbridge and Malling Joint Transportation Board at TMBC's offices at Kings Hill, Trudy Dean - Wateringbury's County Councillor said: "We have been waiting for this urgently needed crossing for over 10 years. It will benefit the pupils of the primary school from Wateringbury and Nettlestead, give safer access to the supermarket and station for residents of Wateringbury, and cut traffic speeds on Bow Road."

The cost of the crossing is £25,000 of which KCC is to pay £12,500. Contributions of £1,000 each have been pledged by the Governors of the Primary School, Borough Councillor Richard Brown and Trudy herself from Councillors' Community Funds Allocation. It is hoped to raise the rest from Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, and from Wateringbury and Nettlestead Parish Councils.

At the same meeting Councillors agreed to hold further talks about reduced speed limits on Red Hill, Wateringbury which is the northerly continuation of Bow Road. Officers explained that a bid for £40,000 of engineering works for the scheme was unlikely to be successful. Trudy has asked officers to allow the project to go ahead initially with just a change to the speed limit signage. She said: "I think KCC goes overboard on the engineering works sometimes, often at the insistence of the Police. It would be sensible to change the signage only first, and see whether speeds are brought down to an acceptable level. Only if cars continue to speed should expensive and often unattractive traffic calming engineering works be agreed."