Stock Parish Council held its latest monthly meeting on 12 November 2024, where a detailed update was given regarding road safety measures the Council would like to introduce in the village.
Councillors and Jason Coleman, the father of Freddie Coleman, the 15-year-old schoolboy who died in a road traffic incident on his way to school in November 2023, met with Maldon MP Sir John Whittingdale.
The meeting saw them discuss areas of concern and the Council and villagers’ desire to have measures introduced to make Stock a safer place for all road users and pedestrians.
Sir John was presented with verified statistics showing that speeding clearly remains a problem in our village, and he will take these, and the views of Councillors and villagers, to the Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Highways, Infrastructure and Sustainable Transport Tom Cunningham.
Since 3 November 2023, the Parish Council has submitted nine Local Highways Panel (LHP) applications requesting speed reductions, average speed cameras and improvements to pedestrian crossings, but these applications have been met with very limited positive results.
The Parish Council has committed nearly £10,000 to carry out speed surveys in the village, but Essex Highways deemed the results of these surveys showing good compliance with limits and that reductions are not justified, despite thousands of vehicles being found to be speeding every week. As a result, no speed limits have been reduced.
A survey of the pedestrian crossing outside Budgen’s did find a signalized Puffin Crossing was justified, but this has since been downgraded to improved Zebra crossing due to technical issues.
In a positive move, the Parish Council has approved funding and applied for licence to erect three vehicle activated speed awareness signs in Stock Road and Mill Road, which will alert motorists that they are breaking the existing 30mph speed limit.
Community Speedwatch monitors traffic each week along Stock Road and Mill Road. In one hour recently, over 30 speeding vehicles were detected. On another early in the morning, 20 speeding motorists were detected along Mill Road. Since March 2024, around 360 motorists have been detected, with some speeds in excess of 50mph.
Stock Parish Council will keep villagers updated as to any further developments on this very important issue, including speaking to the media.
Villagers may have seen members of the Parish Council, Community Speedwatch and Jason Coleman on BBC Look East and in local newspapers at the start of November, highlighting this issue.
With regard to parking in the village, the situation regarding the painting of double yellow lines at dangerous road junctions and a limited number of other locations in the village, including the blind bend on Mill Road, is unchanged from October.
This is now in the hands of the South Essex Parking Partnership (SEPP) and nothing further will happen until the first quarter of 2025, when the Parish Council hopes funding will be approved.
Meanwhile, Stock School has agreed to join the SEPP-funded 3PR scheme to encourage responsible, safe parking. This was due to be launched on 20 November 2024 but has now been put back to the week commencing 13 January 2025 following the sad passing of Councillor Ian Grundy and election of his successor.
A Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) team has visited the village on a number of occasions and parking restrictions will be put in place in School Lane, Back Lane, Cambridge Close and Austen Drive at school arrival and departure times.
Moving onto street care, the Parish Council has requested a permanent bin be installed at the bus stop opposite The Ship, has removed dozens of out-of-date yellow Planning Application posters, applied for local roads to be swept and plans to refurbish the green bench in Back Lane and clean the bus stop opposite The Hoop.
With regard to the local environment, a purchase order will be raised to complete works to the car park on The Common, and hedging will be planted between the car park and The Common. The Parish Council will also organize for dead trees to be removed from The Common.
The Parish Council has been working with Essex County Council’s Flood Assets Management department. Drains and ditches around village were surveyed in early 2024 so these could be mapped and any flooding concerns identified. A drain is to be unblocked outside The Bear, leaving the biggest outstanding issue in Smallgains Lane, where the brook is blocked on farmland near to the road. Work is ongoing to identify the landowner and unblock the brook.
Conservation Volunteers have cleared the pond in Mill Road, opposite the end of Common Lane, and a damaged bin support outside the Alms Houses has been removed.
The Parish Council looks forward to welcoming villagers to the Christmas Craft Fayre on The Common on Saturday 30 November from 12noon-6pm, where you can enjoy live music, delicious food and drinks and visit stalls featuring local craftspeople and business.
A very small number of stalls remain available. If you are interested, please email clerk@stock-pc.gov.uk.
