So Nearly a Tragedy

Early yesterday afternoon we so nearly had a tragedy here in the heart of Winterbourne Stoke on the A303.  I heard the sirens heading along the Berwick road, and more coming up the Devizes road, as I walked on the ridge above the village and it was clear that there had been yet another accident.  The only question was, how bad?

While we are often afflicted with traffic jams, we also suffer from speeding when the road is a little clearer.  Frequently, the culprits are HGV's, racing down the hills on each side of the village, westbound and eastbound though eastbound is worst, to keep up their momentum to let them climb the hill back out of the village.  I don't mean a few miles per hour over the 40 mph speed limit, these HGV's are often travelling at well over 60 and even 70mph, if the Highways Agency's roadside speed monitors are to be believed.

In between times, if the traffic isn't stationary or trying to break the land-speed record, it is merely fast and inconsiderate.  So in every traffic state, trying to turn right onto the A303, out of the one and only access road to the village, can be fraught with danger, or simply incredibly frustrating and time consuming.  When the traffic is stationary, or very slow moving, drivers block the entrance to the village and refuse to let villagers out.  When the traffic is travelling very fast, you can pull out onto a clear road only to have an HGV screaming into view in your rear-view mirror; brakes smoking and horn blaring.  In between these two extremes you get a bit of both.  You can wait for a long, long time for a gap to appear in both lanes of traffic and west-bound drivers, even though they will have had clear site of you waiting patiently for over half a mile, still refuse to let you pull out.  This state of the traffic can be the worst of all and passengers have been known to get out of the car, run down to the crossing in an attempt to create a gap in the traffic.

Then sometimes, just sometimes, you get a nice person who tries to be helpful and let you out of the village onto the A303.  That's what happened yesterday and as a result, an act of kindness so nearly ended in tragedy.

Basically, what happened was this.  A young nanny was trying to leave the village, with two of her young charges in the car.  There was virtually no westbound traffic but a constant stream eastbound.  After waiting some while, a kind eastbound driver in a blue car stopped and beckoned her to pull out.  She made one last check of the road, especially the westbound A303 and when she looked back in preparation to pull out, there was a loud bang and the blue car seemed to have tuned into a silver one and then a big, white HGV, spewing red liquid..  Confused, she hesitated.  Had she pulled out without first checking, things could have ended so differently.  Fortunately, her car was untouched and she was able to reverse back, safely, into the village.

What seems to have happened is this.  The blue car came to a stop and beckoned our driver out of the village.  Further back down the road, and I will make no comment as to the hows and whys of what happened next here,  a large articulated tanker from the Netherlands failed to stop and hit a silver car in the rear.  It was this car that shot forward and into our nanny's field of vision replacing the blue car after hitting it in the rear and, in-turn, being replaced by the HGV.  This is the scene after the emergency services arrived:

The HGV was pretty well beaten up:

The front of the silver car wasn't very pretty either:

However, it was the rear that took the full force of the HGV:

Now, it doesn't seem to have been a very high speed collision,  but whatever combination of speed and distance from the car in front pertained, the lorry driver was unable to stop in time.  The HGV is only three years old, so a relatively new vehicle - unlike many of those that hurtle through.  It doesn't take take much imagination to picture what might have been had one of the leading cars, or the HGV, hit the side of the nanny's car; T-boning it.  Less imagination still to picture the scene if the HGV had been racing into the village as many do - 10mph, 20mph or even 30mph + over the speed limit.

Half-a-dozen people were very lucky yesterday; fortunately with no-one suffering serious injuries.  Yet again, another accident in Winterbourne Stoke shows the unsuitability of the A303 for its purpose as a major strategic route to the West Country and the dangers that the current road poses for the villages that lie alongside the single-carriageway sections of the entire A303/A30/A358 corridor.

This is just one of the reasons why WiSBAng and STAG are campaigning to ensure that the this important road corridor is dualled along its entire length, and as soon as possible.

Has the Highway Agency Lied To The Public on Twitter?

Back in May, we raised a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Highways Agency on the "What Do They Know" website.  As we've said before, we think this is the best way of raising FOIA requests as it usually acts as a spur to keeping the recipients honest and they usually take a bit more care in answering, as mistakes are in the public domain and they risk being humiliated by a public correction, or having downright lies exposed.  This doesn't seem to work in the case of the Highways Agency.

We asked them to list the times and dates of apparent failures of the traffic camera on the A303 at Solstice Park, Amesbury, as it seemed that the camera was frequently out of service when the traffic levels on the A303 were greatest.  Rather than raise this as an unfounded suspicion, we wanted to have factual information (as it turned out, our suspicions about camera failure were unfounded, but we haven't yet established if the camera is ever deliberately turned off!).

Imagine our surprise when we received the following response:

...I refer to your request under the above legislation for information about failure of traffic cameras on the A303.

I can confirm that we do not hold the information. We believe that, as this is a safety camera operated by Wiltshire Police, the information you require may be held by Wiltshire Police. If you have not already done so, you may wish to contact them...

Now, we knew that this was complete cock-and-bull, but we played the game and re-sent the FOIA request to Wiltshire Police, who responded as we expected, pointing out that the police unit responsible for static cameras closed in 2010.  So, back to the Highways Agency we went and asked for an internal review of their original answer.

This time, we got the following response and somewhat half-hearted apology:

"...I am writing to confirm that I have now completed an internal review of our original response to you, which you requested on 30th May.

It appears that we were mistaken in our first response to you and that the Highways Agency has responsibility for the camera in question. Please accept my sincere apologies for the misinformation and any subsequent inconvenience this has caused..."

This isn't the first time that they have answered our FOIA's incorrectly - the level of incompetence for a Government Agency is simply astounding.

Over the last few days, in the run-up to Summer Solstice 2014, we at STAG have been monitoring traffic levels on the A303 and one of the strands of this is to monitor, when possible, the Solstice Park camera.

From midweek, the camera has been out of service and it was definitely out of service last night, showing the typical failure notice:

Imagine our surprise, when we awoke very early on Solstice morning, to see the following Twitter-feed from the Highways Agency:

Poetic, wonderful, atmospheric, the Amesbury webcam was clearly fixed in time for the Solstice dawn.  We are sure the English Heretics would have been delighted by the plug.

Well, actually, no.  The camera was still unavailable the second the tweet was published.  So, are the Highways Agency lying through their teeth about watching the sunrise through the Amesbury webcam, or, are they are lying through their teeth about the camera being available and deliberately suppressing the feed?

Superficially, and in the greater scheme of things, if the Highways Agency are lying, this might seem a fairly trivial untruth.  However, it is information, being put in the public domain on behalf of the Government.  In effect, if true, it's the Government misleading the people.  If they can't be trusted over something as trivial as a webcam feed, how can they be trusted when it comes to something more important regarding the A303 - the current feasibility study for improving it for instance?

Let's just say we are unhappy, a wee bit vexed.

Agencies like the Highways Agency should be answerable to the people and we hope that our MP, John Glen, will seek answers from the Highways Agency on our behalf.

One Law For English Heritage And Another For The Rest Of Us?

Here at WiSBAng we don't really like to keep having a go at English Heritage over the premature closure of the A344 and the consequent and oh-so-often predicted traffic chaos that has ensued.  Not only has this crass act contributed to increased congestion on the A303, it has proved a nightmare for local villages and other minor routes for miles around.  However, despite our intentions, English Heritage have an uncanny habit of opening their mouths and sticking both feet in!

This weekend sees the Summer Solstice and the weather forecast, for once, seems to be fairly reasonable.  Last week, Wiltshire Police and English Heritage were predicting that the crowds might reach 30,000.  Today, the Highways Agency were quoted by BBC South as saying that they expected and additional 35,000 vehicles on the roads around Stonehenge.  Either someone is wrong or the Highways Agency have been misquoted, but I think it's safe to say it might be busy.

Today, I cycled up to Stonehenge to see what was going on in preparation for the Solstice.  My main reason was to see if I was going to be challenged whilst riding along what used to be the A344, which, despite English Heritage's protestations, remains open throughout the Solstice period for anyone who wants to walk, ride a bike, ride a horse, drive a horse and cart, or drive an invalid carriage along it.  I wasn't challenged today, but I suspect that might be a little different of Friday afternoon or Saturday morning.

There was lots of activity east of the visitor's centre where the Solstice carparks are being prepared - with an estimated capacity of 6,500 vehicles.  Now, I was always a bit of a duffer at maths, but even I can work out that isn't going to make much of a dent in the extra 35,000 vehicles on the local roads.

I rode down to Byway 12 to see what was going on there and was, I have to say, impressed that the old visitor's centre has largely disappeared and that a proper turning circle has been built for the land train and coaches.  I was even more impressed that the land trains were able to turn round in it, given they are not renowned for having a good turning circle.

Now, today was the day that Wiltshire Council's Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) for the Summer Solstice came into force.

It applies to ALL vehicles, except those of the emergency services.  The restrictions imposed by the TRO includes vehicles owned and operated by English Heritage and their contractors - it is a blanket ban on the use of Byway 12.  English Heritage, far from setting a good example and keeping off Byway 12, clearly feel that the law of the land doesn't apply to them.

Despite having a nice new turning area, some of the EH drivers can't be arsed to use it.

All our photos are date/time stamped should Wiltshire Council/Wiltshire Police choose to prosecute. 

Some English Heritage drivers are playing the game, and using the new turning, as this photo shows:

The coach beyond the land-train is obviously doing the right thing.  However, another coach pulls up on the right and...

...the driver leaps out for a crafty fag (a quick note to our US readers - a fag, in this context, is slang for a cigarette!).  Unfortunately, he has his back turned to the prominently displayed TRO notice posted at the entrance to Byway 12.   Of course, he could use the turning circle but no...

...he also drives onto Byway 12 in breach of the TRO to turn round.

If anyone is unfortunate enough to contravene the Wiltshire Council TRO, on foot, with an animal, or in any form of vehicle, during the Solstice period, then we will happily provide time-stamped copies to help them mount a defence - it doesn't seem right that anyone should be fined for doing something that English Heritage are doing multiple times an hour. 

Alternatively, to a Wiltshire rate-payer, prosecuting English Heritage for each and every infraction of the TRO - that's twice in 6 minutes, 20 times an hour or 160 times during an 8 hour day at £1,000 a pop.  That's a cool £160,000 a day, or £800,000 for the planned Solstice closure - could seem a very attractive proposition!

Stoned Again - Will Summer Solstice 2014 Cause Additional Chaos on the A303

Yesterday,  English Heritage, Wiltshire Police and a host of local stakeholders got together in the Antrobus Hotel in Amesbury to hear the plans for traffic management over the summer solstice period.

For the first time since 2008, the summer Solstice falls on Saturday morning, which means that the crowds might be bigger than in years when the solstice falls during the working week.  Last year, about 20,000 folks turned up to watch the sun rise.  Back in June 2008, 30,000 people turned up to wait through a cold, wet and misty night for a dawn that proved equally cold, wet and misty.  It's a bit early for a weather forecast for the solstice weekend and the Met Office have cocked up the weekend forecasts for this part of the world for the last two weekends running, so I guess the forecast is uncertain. We might expect a bigger crowd than we saw in 2008, simply on the basis that: "Summer 2014 has got to start at some point" and the Solstice weekend is as good a time as any.

The big difference this year is that it is the time the A344 has been closed for the summer Solstice, so the traffic problems that this might cause in the local area are a bit of an unknown, though we can speculate that it isn't going to be pretty.  The biggest question of all for us here at WiSBAng is whether it will cause more problems for the A303, where the weekend traffic situation is already nightmarish, and in the surrounding villages where rat-runners are making life even more unpleasant.

The English Heritage and Wiltshire Police traffic management plan for the solstice period is shown on the map below - please click on it to enlarge.

Basically, EH plan to close access to Stonehenge itself at 14:30 on Friday 20th June and then the new Visitor's centre, arrowed in green on the map, will be closed from 15:00.  The two Byways (Byway 11 and 12) that are close to the stones have been closed under a temporary Traffic Regulation Order to a point about 500 metres south of the A303.

 Apart from a few of the byways, bridleways and footpaths on the MoD ranges which are closed for a live-firing exercise (look out for the red flags), ALL other byways, bridleways, footpaths and roads in the vicinity are open.  That is a little contrary to to English Heritage's Summer Solstice 2014 Conditions of Entry and Information document which claims at the top of page 6 that the A344 is closed.  That is untrue, the route is still open for walkers, cyclists, horse riders, carriage drivers and invalid carriages, but English Heritage would prefer people not to walk along the route of what once was the A344, as they have provided an off-road route to the stones just for the Solstice. 

We expect that motor vehicles stopping and waiting on the A303, the A360 between Longbarrow Roundabout and Airman's Cross and on towards Shrewton will be prevented by the usual coning-off of all likely stopping places.  So anyone wanting to stop in the area is going to have to move further afield.

People arriving at Stonehenge Visitor's Centre, after it closes and before the Solstice car parks are opened at 19:00 on Friday 20th of June, are going to be asked to wait on the B3086 that runs north from the new Visitor's Centre towards the Bustard Crossroads.  So there is the potential here for a bit of chaos, as this section of road is a favourite part of the Friday evening rat-run when the A303 is jammed.  Hopefully, no-one wanting to attend the solstice will turn up until after 19:00.  If lots turn up early, then there is a potential for gridlock.  At the very least, it's likely to see more traffic heading for Shrewton on the London Road (B3086), though where they might go from there is anyone's guess.  They may strike out west on the B390, hoping to rejoin the A303 from the A36, or they could head south on the B3083, here to Winterbourne Stoke.  Some, wanting to see Stonehenge, may head back east on the A360 towards Airman's Corner, adding to the confused, bemused and possibly bloody-minded, heading for the Solstice; let alone the locals just heading home for the weekend.

This is all going to happen during the Friday commute home and coinciding with the weekend peak traffic flow on the A303 (16:00 - 21:00).  English Heritage are trying to persuade everyone wanting to attend the Solstice to go to Salisbury and take public transport up to the World Heritage site; it might persuade some, but again it's an unknown quantity. Roadside signs, from the M3 westwards, will warn people to stay away from Stonehenge if it gets too crowded.  At 19:00, the two new Solstice carparks (marked in blue on the map) will be opened and then people will start to flood in, which has the potential to cause further chaos on all routes in to Airman's Cross as people rush for a parking space.  We are told that these two car-parks have a similar capacity to the old Solstice car-park.

So, we have a fair degree of uncertainty about how things will unfold.   On the one hand, it may be freezing cold and lashing down with rain. People travelling to the West Country may choose to avoid the Stonehenge area entirely, reducing the back-ground traffic flow on the A303.  Solstice-goers may largely choose to take a bus to Stonehenge.  Those few that decide to arrive under their own steam may choose to arrive after the evening peak traffic flow and those that arrive early may follow the advice to wait on the B3086. With luck, no one leaves the A303 in a desperate attempt to avoid traffic jams, as it is flowing freely.  No-one stops to take a snap of the henge as they pass and no-one crashes their cars having been distracted by the herds of flying pigs, performing synchronised acrobatics overhead at the very thought of such a possibility.

Ah, bliss!

On the other hand, Friday 20th June  2014 may turn out to be a balmy night to be followed by a glorious sunny weekend.  Tourist's flood to the West County in their usual droves and follow, lemming-like, their normal routes.  Solstice-goers turn up as usual, on foot or in the usual mix of barely legal motor-vehicles and ignore/miss the exhortations on social media and in the Press to use public transport.  The B3086 is soon blocked, so this leads to problems in both directions on the A360, which eventually spill out onto the Longbarrow Roundabout.  Aging vehicles heading for Stonehenge overheat, blocking the westbound A303 near Stonehenge Bottom and the eastbound traffic just east of Winterbourne Stoke.  Westbound, Eastbound and Northbound traffic on the A303 and A360 will converge and collide, probably literally, around the Longbarrow Roundabout as a result of impatience and short-tempers.  Longbarrow Roundabout grinds to a standstill by mid afternoon and remains grid-locked for hours, and hours.  The last of the broken down and crash-damaged vehicles can't be removed until sometime on Saturday - after the peak of the great slog home has passed.  All those who are stuck on the A303 decide to cut their losses and visit Stonehenge as they aren't going anywhere else; the A303 becomes a large carpark.

Of course, it could get even worse.  God forbid there is a serious accident on any of the surrounding roads, but it is a Friday, and they are such a regular occurrence...

...then we have the possibility that some of the visitor's decide to make a weekend of it, or an impromptu rave or free-festival kicks off.

The reality is likely to be somewhere between these two extremes, but it would be a brave person who is prepared to put hard cash on the outcome.  We will, of course, see what happens in a few days time.