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Essex Police
Mobile Support Division
Holts Lane
Waltham Road
Boreham
Essex CM3 3BG
DfT Olympic Route Network Consultation
Research services House
Elmgrove Road,
Our Ref
Harrow
Your Ref:
HA1 2QG
1st March 2009
Dear Sirs
Designation of the Olympic Route Network
This letter is the consultation response from Essex Police. It includes the
results of our internal consultations with Mobile Support Division Road
Policing, Traffic Management Unit, Olympic Planning and the Neighbourhood
Policing Team for Castle Point District. The Olympic Route Network has also
been discussed with our partners in the Essex Olympic Transportation Group;
this response also includes issues raised within these discussions.
The Essex Olympic Transportation Group is a multi agency body which
consists of representatives from Essex local authorities, emergency services,
Highways Agency and its contractors, along with BAA, Network Rail and other
interested operators. As this is an Essex based group, the discussions and
comments relate only to those routes passing through or into Essex, in
particular the venue specific ORN serving the Hadleigh Farm and Broxbourne
venues, along with those routes serving the preferred training venues at
Brentwood and Chigwell. The individual member organisations are in many
cases providing their own response to the consultation document.
Question 1
The Government believes that the roads proposed in this document as the Olympic
Route Network are the most appropriate roads to meet the set of four requirements,
(ORN – Core, ORN – Venues, ORN – Alternative Routes and ORN – Preferred
training venues) as described on pages 17 and 18 of this consultation document.
Looking at the roads selected for each of the four categories of ORN, as shown on the
enclosed maps and list, do you believe that any of the roads should not be included in
the ORN? What are your reasons? To enable a consistent analysis of responses,
when referring to individual roads please make sure you use the unique reference
number, road number, road name and from/to details listed in Annexe E.
The roads selected to serve the Hadleigh Farm and Broxbourne venues appear to be
the most appropriate available and are suitable for use as part of the ORN.
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Question 2
If you believe that any of the roads selected should not be included, which roads do
you believe would be more appropriate to meet the relevant requirement(s)? What
are your reasons? To enable a consistent analysis of responses, when referring to
individual roads please make sure you use the unique reference number, road
number, road name and from/to details.
Not applicable
Question 3
The Olympic Delivery Authority will work with Transport for London and other key
stakeholders to develop the detailed traffic measures that will be used on certain parts
of the ORN, to ensure the smooth flow of both Games Family and other traffic. Once
the proposed measures have been identified, the Olympic delivery Authority will
discuss the measures with those directly affected and other stakeholders who have an
interest in the ORN.
Would you like to be contacted by the Olympic delivery Authority or its ORN delivery
partners in the future to discuss the detailed measures? If yes, please indicate your
particular interests in the ORN and how you would like to be contacted.
Essex Police would like to be contacted and involved in discussions concerning the
detailed measures for the ORN. The point of contact should be Inspector Mark
Harman, Essex Police London 2012 Project Manager, Mobile Support Division, Holts
Lane, Waltham Road, Boreham, Essex, CM3 3BG. Telephone - 07710 024214 (s40
FOI) applies xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xxxxxx.xx
Question 4
A draft Impact Assessment for the order designating the Olympic route network is at
Annex F of this consultation document.
Do you have any comments on the section of the draft Impact Assessment describing
the possible effects on the ORN?
Accepting the rationale of giving priority to the ORN, measures should be
proportionate to the Olympic Family traffic volumes. We understand these will be
relatively small for the Hadleigh Farm (80 vehicles) and Broxbourne venues, limiting
the justification for major disruption to business as usual traffic on the routes.
Delaying or other management of routine utility works does not cause us any
concerns, but there will need to be an exemption for emergency works on the routes.
Enforcement of parking restrictions is no longer a police function. The enforcement
of enhanced parking restrictions will need to be agreed with the local authority, unless
parking in contravention of the ORN regulations is made a criminal offence,
enforceable by police. If there is an expectation of effective Police enforcement, these
resources will need to be built into any planning. There are no such plans to deploy
Police resources for this purpose at present.
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Where the parking restrictions are placed on high speed roads, there will be a need to
be a tow away facility, with operators trained in working within this dangerous
environment.
Question 5
Do you have any other comments on the draft Impact assessment?
The policy objectives for the ORN do not acknowledge the ORN leaving the London
Boroughs. It uses the phrase ‘
minimising the impact of the games on residents,
businesses and visitors to London’. Significant sections of the ORN are outside
London, serving Hadleigh Farm, Broxbourne, Eton Dorney and Weymouth. Simply
removing the words ‘to London’ would make it inclusive.
Question 6
Are there any other significant considerations you believe need to be taken into
account with regard to the ORN? If so what are they?
Statutory Instrument (Draft) – there is no definition of terms, but section 2(2) says
‘
Those roads are designated as the Olympic Route Network until the end of the
London Olympic period.’ Does this mean there will be a separate statutory instrument
for the Paralympic period, or does the Olympic period in this context include both
games?
The statutory instrument appears to include the names/numbers of all affected Essex
roads. However I note only part of the routes to the Essex preferred training venues
are shown. Neither Luxborough Lane (serving Spurs Lodge and Old Loughtonians)
nor Doddinghurst Road (serving Brentwood Centre) are included in Schedule 2. This
omission may cause problems if legislation intended to keep the ORN flowing freely
cannot be applied to the final miles of these routes.
The management of the background demand will be key to making parts of the ORN
work properly. Some sections of the proposed routes through Essex have a poor
congestion history. These include both single carriageway sections, such as the A13
at Hadleigh and dual carriageway sections such as the A13 in Thurrock, or large
sections of the M11 and M25. Without a reduction in background demand, there will
be delays, whatever measures to control parking and utility works are put in place.
I note in Annex A (Sec 8) the Melbourne and Beijing Games required 1-3 days
intensive enforcement of the Games Lanes to encourage compliance. Such
enforcement is generally not the role of the police and would certainly not be given
any level of priority. If there is any expectation of enhanced police enforcement
activity, this will need to be declared and built into planning assumptions.
The M11, M25, A121 route to the Broxbourne venue is the most logical route. It
makes use of the high speed roads to M25 J26 then a relatively lightly used road
(A121) into the venue. There is potential for delay near the venue entrance which will
require some traffic management in peak flow periods. The M11 and M25 stretches
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can suffer tailbacks and delays through incidents and accidents, but CCTV monitoring
will allow the MOCC to direct the games vehicles on to the alternate.
The Hadleigh Farm venue has the proposed route along the A127, from the A12 to the
A129 and A13 into Hadleigh. The alternate route involves use of the A13 from
London, direct to the venue. These routes run basically parallel through south Essex,
both are dual carriageway to within a few miles of the venue.
The A127 would not be our preferred option; it is an older, narrower road which
retains many features such as side roads, short slip roads and corners which would not
be found on a more modern trunk road such as the A13. A new speed limit reduction
and camera enforcement scheme is being introduced on approach to the A129 (s31
FOI, Law Enforcement applies) which will increase journey times. A local Road
Policing Unit Commander identifies the Rayleigh Weir junction with the A129 as a
pinch point, which tails back very quickly and states the A129 Rayleigh Road is also
subject to congestion problems during high traffic volumes. Part way along the A129
is a double roundabout system, which also sees significant delays at busy times. The
A13 within Hadleigh is also a congestion hot spot, but this section of road is common
to both routes.
The A13 is our preferred option. It is a newer faster flowing road, unobstructed until
it reaches the A130 (Sadlers Farm). This junction is due for major works prior to
2012, which should improve its flow, mitigating the peak flow delays currently
experienced. The single carriageway section between Sadlers Farm and Hadleigh
does experience peak flow congestion, but is currently subject to a review of the
junctions and public transport routes to improve the peak traffic flows.
We are aware there are plans to place park and ride sites for the Hadleigh farm venue
and the Olympic Park on the A13 corridor (s31 FOI, Law Enforcement applies) It
would be advantageous to separate the ORN from the increased volumes of traffic
accessing the park and ride sites.
Whichever route is chosen as the primary route, the other will be a suitable alternate
in case of incident or obstruction.
Yours faithfully
Mark Harman
Inspector
London 2012 Project Manager
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