An update regarding the recent survey for an HGV weight limit through Bentworth has been published. Overall there have been 47 responses, 44 of which were for the proposal. District Councillor Tony Costigan has reached out to Hampshire Highways informing them that the village wishes to proceed with implementing this request.
The response we have received is not in favour of such a request. A copy of that response is attached to the foot of this note. To summarise, Hampshire Highways do not identify Bentworth Village as an area of concern and will therefore not be progressing the request any further.
The Parish Council understands the frustrations that this will bring to many parishioners, however for the time being we are constrained to current Hampshire County Council policy. If or when this policy is amended, we will revisit as a matter of urgency.
Response from Hampshire Highways:
I can confirm that the County Council’s Traffic team has no proposals to progress a prohibition of heavy goods vehicles in the Bentworth area. In accordance with current Traffic Management (TM) policy, priority for TM measures is primarily being given to those highest risk sites where there are proven injury accident problems in terms of numbers of accidents, accident severity, common contributory factors and identifiable patterns. For your advice and assistance, you will find below a link to the County Council’s Making Roads Safer webpage which gives more details in relation to the safer roads service:
https://www.hants.gov.uk/transport/roadsafety/makingroadssafer
As per the above link, the County Council’s 2016 Traffic Management policy scales back generally on the delivery of TM measures that do not clearly demonstrate a casualty reduction benefit. In particular, the County Council is scaling back work on larger scale measures (such as lower speed limits, physical traffic calming and heavy goods vehicle controls) unless required to support casualty reduction.
Please note that:
(i) The reasons for not progressing a prohibition of heavy goods vehicles in the Bentworth area relate to current County Council policy, not existing legislation.
(ii) The existing prohibition of vehicles in the Lasham area was progressed before the current injury accident-led / casualty reduction-driven Traffic Management policy was adopted.
Andrew Moir - 27th April 2021 at 3:38 pm
If heavy goods vehicles are to continue using Bentworth as a through route perhaps more attention could be given to strengthening and maintaining the road surface to a standard commensurate with this requirement. I have been advised in the past by Highways’ road engineers that the road is essentially a tarmac surface over an original metalled country track lacking reinforced margins. The consequence is a continual programme of repairs to potentially damaging potholes.
Andrew Moir - 27th April 2021 at 3:38 pm
If heavy goods vehicles are to continue using Bentworth as a through route perhaps more attention could be given to strengthening and maintaining the road surface to a standard commensurate with this requirement. I have been advised in the past by Highways’ road engineers that the road is essentially a tarmac surface over an original metalled country track lacking reinforced margins. The consequence is a continual programme of repairs to potentially damaging potholes.