Our Coast, Our Sea - Fresh ideas to solve problems with traffic in villages

16 December 2011

Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) has just launched a ground-breaking new Toolkit for communities to help them solve traffic problems in their villages. The toolkit was launched at a conference in London last Wednesday. The Traffic in Villages Toolkit has been much anticipated by transport & planning professionals and community groups across the country and especially here in Northumberland.

Fresh ideas are emerging to help address rural traffic issues and the Dorset AONB Team was keen to capture these in the form of a Toolkit for rural communities to use. The Toolkit places community engagement at the heart of the process, building on local energies, creativity and commitment to contribute to the work of the highway authority.

Sue Mitchell, Dorset AONB Officer explains ‘Cars and lorries are part of our lives, for better or worse. Maintaining and protecting the quality of life against a background of growing traffic volumes is perhaps the greatest challenge facing most rural communities. I know from my experiences in Dorset that this is a much heart felt issue and I hope the Toolkit can really stimulate new solutions to these very common problems.’

Iain Robson from the Northumberland Coast AONB Partnership said “This Toolkit builds on our Highways Design Guide and the work currently being piloted in Bamburgh to manage traffic. The AONB Partnership will be encouraging communities in the AONB to use it when considering traffic and highways issues in their villages”

Ben Hamilton-Baillie who wrote the Toolkit has pioneered new approaches to traffic and place making in urban areas in the past but wanted to understand the needs of rural communities better. “Building on successful rural traffic solutions from the UK and elsewhere in mainland Europe, I was really keen to build a Toolkit with some simple and practical ways for local communities to address problems commonly associated with traffic in rural villages. I thrilled that it has been endorsed by the Chartered Institute of Highways & Transportation and other professional bodies”

Mike Scott, Head of Sustainable Transport at Northumberland County Council said “The improvements to streetscapes set out in this guide are exactly the kind of measures that we want to consider in rural Northumberland, where there is strong community support as is the case in Bamburgh. Indeed Bamburgh’s work has excited other communities in the County and ignited a desire to see more of these improvements in our rural villages. The County recognises that some improvements can be delivered at low cost, while others are more expensive and take longer to deliver – and our resources are becoming ever tighter. But where there is strong community support and involvement, the chance to implement this toolkit will be enhanced.”

Developing a partnership approach to road management has been an important and continuing strand of work in the sensitive landscape of the Northumberland Coast AONB. This Toolkit represents an important step forward in helping communities and highway authorities to work together to value and conserve our local distinctiveness. By providing a step by step approach to making our rural roads so much better, we hope the Toolkit will empower communities to embrace their rural roads with confidence and enthusiasm.

The toolkit is available as a pdf from www.dorsetaonb.org.uk or from the Northumberland Coast AONB Partnership