This petition has been reviewed and the following response has been offered:
Norfolk County Council is aware of the issues residents face when there are problems on the highway network, causing difficulty in exiting Queens Hills. We are therefore fully committed to working to bring forward a number of schemes to help traffic flow in the area and provide travel choice.
A number of smaller scale highway measures have already been delivered using a mixture of developer funding and monies from the public purse. Key measures include a free-flow slip road from William Frost Way to Dereham Road and extensive widening of Dereham Road to two-lanes in either direction. The full list of measures devised to address transport issues in the area is shown below:
- Free flow left turn slip road from William Frost Way to Dereham Road
- Widening Dereham Road between the Longwater roundabout and the new traffic lights at Lodge Farm 2
- Longwater Lane/Dereham Road junction improvement
- Dereham Road widening to two lanes in each direction (east section)
- Part signalisation of the Longwater southern (Showground) roundabout
- Free flow slip road form Dereham Road westbound onto A47 eastbound
- A47 eastbound off slip road improvement
- Easton Village public transport corridor
- Cycle and pedestrian bridge over the A47
- 10.Improvement to the Easton roundabout
Items 1 to 4 are now in place. Item 5 is a developer requirement which will be implemented when a key trigger point is reached. Land has been made available by the developer for item 6, and this and items 7, 8 and 9 can be investigated further when funding is identified. The cycle and pedestrian bridge over the A47 was earmarked for inclusion in the Norwich Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) bid but the amount on offer from government for this round meant that it was not included this time but still remains a priority scheme. Item 10, an improvement to the Easton roundabout will be delivered as part of Highways England’s scheme to dual the A47 between Norwich and Dereham, albeit further west than the current junction.Additionally, in response to stakeholder and public feedback we are investigating ways of bringing forward for early delivery the pedestrian crossing of William Frost Way to link the two parts of the retail area.
The measures delivered to date have made a significant improvements in day to day traffic flows although we recognise resilience to incidents is still a key issue to be addressed.
The favoured large scale intervention for the Longwater area is a link road from Dereham Road to the Ernest Gage Avenue/William Frost Way roundabout which would relieve the interchange and provide a second southern access to the Queens Hill/Longwater area relieving pressure on the William Frost Way access. Further work is required on this link road to enable the council to bid for government funding for construction. A bid was made to the Norfolk Business Rates Pool fund in autumn 2019 to fund this further work but this was unfortunately unsuccessful so we continue to seek funding.
A new link road from Sir Alfred Munnings Road to the Easton roundabout has been suggested previously and evaluated using traffic modelling techniques. This analysis confirmed that because the main travel demand is towards Norwich this link would not attract sufficient traffic to make it viable in both operational and economic terms. Additionally, it would have a significant detrimental environmental impact on the River Tud valley. Furthermore, the latest proposal from Highways England to dual the A47 between Easton and North Tuddenham would preclude such a scheme as Church Lane will no longer be connected to the new Easton junction which will be located further to the west.
In order to provide travel choice, whilst progress has been extremely slow, we are also continuing to work with the consortium of developers at Queen’s Hill regarding the adoption and opening of the Bus Lane. When in operation this will provide a reliable public transport access to and from Queens Hills. This is the Council’s favoured use for this highway link as it would incentivise public transport.
An Emergency Access Protocol has also been devised for use of the Bus Lane and gate by other vehicles to exit Queens Hills if incidents occur that block the southern access. However, it is unlikely that we can progress this until the adoption of the bus lane has happened. Some of the personnel involved in the discussions about the protocol, some 5 years ago, may have moved on so it would be prudent to reconvene a meeting to review the protocol with the relevant parties to ensure it will deliver what we all expect, once it’s in our control.
Please be assured that Norfolk County Council is fully committed to making transport improvements across all modes in the Longwater area. To this end we will continue to develop transport schemes to help alleviate the issues you have highlighted. We would also welcome the opportunity to work more closely with Costessey Town Council in the future to garner local support for these transport schemes and initiatives.