Arrive Alive whitewash letter that hides over a 1000 speeding cars through our village road daily

Mr Colin Hughes

1 Penymynydd Road

Penyffordd

Chester

CH4 0LS

Sent by email to: removed

My answer in red

1^st July 2008

Our Ref: FOI Dec 07.03 additional information

Dear Mr Hughes,

Further to our correspondence I can now provide a breakdown of results from the latest speed survey on Chester Road, Penyffordd.

Results show:

	June 08 (10 day survey)	Apr 07 (7 day survey)
Total vehicles	25225	16854
Average daily total	2489	2836
Average speed	28 mph	32 mph
85th percentile speed	35 mph	38 mph
Peak times of speed	Similar patterns shown	0700 and 2230 hrs
Peak volumes of traffic	Similar patterns shown	0830 and 1730 hrs

Arrive Alive's website say this

Vounnog Hill/Chester Rd, Penyffordd

30

/ 39mph percentile

The above data continues to not show well in excess of 1500 speeding vehicles daily through Chester Rd. You continue to protect the companies AIRBUS and RAYTHEON from carrying out their corporate environmental duties to local villages such as Penyffordd. Your 28 mph average a total distortion of the reality of the situation.

Since we first received complaints of excessive speed on Chester Road, Penyffordd the following actions have been taken:

• Site visits and speed surveys have been carried out by Hugh Jones
• A site visit was carried out by Flintshire County Council Highways staff to discuss engineering.
• You have been invited to the Arrive Alive office several times to discuss your concerns but have not accepted these invitations.
• Of what use is a visit by myself if you will not address the reality of over 1500 vehicles speeding through the village each day.
  
• The area has been included as an Arrive Alive site of community concern and visited routinely; we have also visited the nearby Vounog Hill area.
• Visits once every Preston Guild are of little use.
  
• The area has been included as a Police community site.
• North Wales Police have abandoned Chester Rd with regards 1500 speeding vehicles each day.
  
• The Community Officer and/or Safer Roads Officer have visited the area with flashing speed indicator signs as part of a driver education programme.
• This has been of little success, you have the exact data but will not show the evidence.
  
• Rumble strips and advance warning of the 30 mph limit have been installed.
• A vehicle activated sign has been installed.
• This has helped but there is nothing for the opposing direction, which is the direction of the morning rat run
  
• The casualty history has been checked for 3 years to Jan 08, showing one slight injury occurred on the Vounog Hill section and one slight injury on Hawarden Road. No personal injury collisions are recorded on Chester Road during these 3 years.
• You continue to ignore 1500 speeding vehicles which are a constant danger to our school children.
  
• An Arrive Alive enforcement officer has been in contact with you to discuss your concerns and realistic expectations.
• This officer identified the main problem is noise of vehicles with volume and speed of vehicles linked to this. It should be noted that the volume of traffic and noise are outside the remit of Arrive Alive. Speeding traffic is within the remit of Arrive Alive. 1500 speeding vehicles a day which you continue to hide.
  
• After further correspondence the Community Sergeant arranged a visit to discuss your concerns. Yes I met with Sergeant Alun Davies but in what way does this resolve 1500 vehicles that actually speed through Chester Rd, Penyffordd everyday?
  
• Hugh Jones has approached local businesses and is in the process of arranging a driver awareness programme at Airbus, this is part of our usual business. I also understand the Daily Post reported in February 08 that ‘Airbus, Broughton, won a national road safety award for Wales for creating better driving techniques and reducing risks for employees at the site.’ At the time of this award Airbus' employees continued to speed through this village and have done ever since.
• Results from the latest survey have been fully interrogated and show a clear reduction in the levels of speeding at this site. You continue to hide the total data your position is a disgrace. You are acting in a totally unaccountable manner. Your actions in my opinion are one of falsehood and evasion.

As you see, effort has been taken to listen to your concerns and take appropriate action.
No , not really your action has been very poor. You have the total data but refuse to act upon it.

Our daily morning 300 vehicle speeding rat run during the time when primary school children are walking and cycling to school a continuing disgrace.

I am sure you understand that our staff must give attention to the needs of many and staff time must be allocated accordingly. You do not have the resources do deal with this problem. Arrive Alive is all smoke, mirrors and continuing evasion.

All the above efforts have seen very little real progress of speeding traffic through Penyffordd village centre which is a major route to school. You continue to hide anonymous data that can be put on any computer with MS Excel. You endanger school children, OAP's and horses that use Penyffordd village centre by your token efforts.

Therefore, I am formally asking you to remove the Arrive Alive email address from your circulation list. This is to ensure administration staff are able to provide a balanced service to each area of their work.

I am formally refusing to comply with the above request as we still have over 1500 speeding vehicles each day through Chester Rd, Penyffordd.

Thank you for raising your concerns and I trust this detailed response may be reassuring.

Reassuring is not the word I would use. Total unaccountability to the residents of Chester Rd, Penyffordd is nearer the mark.

Yours sincerely,

Essi Ahari (Insp.)

Manager, Arrive Alive

North Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership

cc Hugh Jones, Arrive Alive Safer Roads Officer

Carl Sargeant

Cllr. David Williams

Cllr. Cindy Hinds

Cllr. Linda Vidamour

Sgt. 1633 Alun Davies

Gerwyn Powell, Flintshire County Council

Other interested parties as appropriate.

Perhaps they might be Inspector Alun Oldfield, Chief Superintendent Ruth Purdie

and Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom.

This will remain a public record of the unaccountability of North Wales Police and the Arrive Alive Partnership.

ps With regards my FOIE for data for May 2007 for Chester Rd in which you refused to give the data, I have objected, you stated there is then a 4 - 6 month appeals procedure. This period is now up give me your answer. A negative for the data release will result in me appealing to the Information Commissioner.

I will also be pursuing other FOIE 's to show the true position of the Arrive Alive Partnership and North Wales Police in relation to speeding traffic in the communities of North Wales.