A “RAT run” for traffic looking to avoid congestion on the edge of the Chiltern Hills is set to get speed bumps and a 20 miles-per-hour (mph) limit. 

Traffic calming measures for Pyrton Lane, Watlington, were approved by Oxfordshire County Council this week to tackle the problem of motorists looking to bypass the town centre. 

It provides a second option linking traffic to and from the north east, north west and south west of Watlington during busy times.

An increasing volume of cars and lorries, added to what Watlington Parish Council’s Ian Hill described as the “narrowness and discontinuity” of pavements, has caused concern in recent years.

“Pyrton Lane provides the only vehicle access for 20 homes on Pyrton Lane and 21 homes on St Leonard’s Close,” he said. 

“It is also used as a rat run by cars and increasingly by HGVs to avoid the town centre and its congestion problems.

“It is the need for pedestrians to walk along the road that is of most concern to me. 

“About half of the houses on Pyrton Lane have no pedestrian access other than along the lane. This includes children walking to school, some of whom have to walk 70 metres or more along the lane to get to a safer route and, of course, they are doing this during rush hour. 

“The result is that parents tend to drive their children 1.5 kilometres to school when they could walk half that distance on little-used streets.

“Only a third of Pyrton Lane has a usable pedestrian path with the rest blocked by hedges that make it inaccessible.”

Cllr Hill also highlighted that “pinch points” send vehicles into verges which adds to congestion and while a bypass is planned, it is “dependent on four housing developments” and will be “at least five years” in the making. 

In sanctioning the measures, Councillor Tim Bearder, (Lib Dem, Wheatley) the county’s cabinet member for highway management, added to calls to see the lane closed in the future.

“It absolutely makes sense to slow the speed of traffic in that area and put in the traffic calming measures,” he said. 

“It is hopefully an interim measure before the lane becomes closed and made into a mini-LTN (low traffic neighbourhood) but that’s for later.” 

It means a 20 mph zone will be implemented on Pyrton Lane from the B480 Cuxham Road to 120 metres north of the turn for St Leonard’s Close.

Two full-width speed humps and a speed cushion will be installed to aid compliance.

 

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