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Roads and Transport

Access to Whiteley - public consultation

Public consultation and next steps

The public consultation ended on 17 February. Outcomes and next steps will be published here in mid/late May, please check back then.

The County Council invited views of residents on whether opening Yew Tree Drive in Whiteley to all traffic would be the best approach to managing traffic growth in Whiteley and the surrounding area.

Fareham Borough Council as the planning authority and Hampshire County Council as the highway authority will use the results of the public consultation to help decide whether to go ahead with any changes to Yew Tree Drive in the near future.

Residents in the immediate area were sent a consultation questionnaire that they may complete in hard copy and return by post. There was also an option of completing the online questionnaire. Over 2000 responses were received.

Background and context

For a number of years consideration has been given to the opening of the bus gate at Yew Tree Drive to all traffic. The County Council and Borough Council are now considering a formal six month trial opening to all traffic and to gauge the current views of residents on this.

Hampshire County Council previously sought your opinion on the opening of Yew Tree Drive in April 2010.Since then the County Council has considered the effects of opening Yew Tree Drive for a three week period in July 2012 to allow for service works.

During the summer of 2012 the gate was open to all traffic for three weeks in July due to National Grid works being carried out. Automatic traffic counters were located on neighbouring roads and they collected traffic flow data before the opening of the bus gate (in May) and during the opening (in July).

The average daily number of vehicles using the Yew Tree Drive link by the end of the trial period was approximately 3300. The impact of the bus gate being opened was shown to have varying impacts on the level of traffic on the surrounding road network.

The main changes to daily 12 hour two way flows between May and July 2012 were:

  • Yew Tree Drive Bus Gate had an increase of 3300 vehicles
  • Botley Road north had an increase of 1600 vehicles +18%
  • Botley Road south: had an increase of 1700 vehicles, +20%
  • Swanwick Lane had an increase of 300 vehicles +7%
  • Yew Tree Drive east: had an increase of 400 vehicles  +5%
  • Leafy Lane had no change in traffic flow
  • Whiteley Way had a reduction of 2500 vehicles  -11%

It is important to note that the opening of the bus gate in July 2012 was not a formal trial and therefore it was not publicised. Also, July is not an ideal month to survey because the roads tend to be quieter and this is reflected in the data collected, which show lower levels of traffic making it harder to detect changes in flows. The survey information therefore gives an indication of what the effects of opening Yew Tree Drive to all traffic could be, but should not be seen as a comprehensive assessment of impacts.

Rookery Avenue

The completion of Rookery Avenue is currently not proceeding due to issues relating to acquisition of the land. It is therefore not being considered as part of this consultation.

Technical documents