CREDITON Traffic Action Group, (CTAG) have been counting traffic at various points in the Crediton area over the last eight months. On Thursday, February 18, we were counting in Exeter Road and on January 19, we counted vehicles emerging from Mill Street and going towards Exeter Road and Charlotte Street.

The time periods, 0700-1900 were chosen to match DCC practice and we have data for each hour and a range of vehicle classes.

We counted numbers of cars, vans, Heavy Goods Vehicles, HGVs, Light Goods Vehicles, LGVs, buses, motor-bikes and pedal bikes. We have compared the Exeter Road traffic with DCC data from January 27 2005. In terms of total vehicles, this year's 12 hour figure was 14,348, which, I think, is 24.8 per cent up on 2005 and the HGV numbers 447, were 23.8 per cent up.

In that year, 2005, the air quality in Exeter Road and the High Street was found to be poor and did not satisfy the statutory objectives laid down by the EU and accepted by Westminster.

In 2005 the mean 16 hour traffic flow exceeded 14,000 vehicles of which 3.1 per cent were HDVs, Heavy Duty Vehicles, which we called HGVs, Heavy Goods Vehicles.

We chose an arbitrary day to count but the number of vehicles we observed in 12 hours, 14,348, is in excess of the daily 16 hours mean for 2005, when air quality was bad.

How representative were the DCC traffic figures for 2005? What traffic data were used by TESCO to support their case for the development of the site at Wellparks and their predictions of the effect of a relief road on air-quality in Exeter Road?

On January 28, we counted vehicles leaving Mill Street and turning left into Exeter Road, total 2947 and 152 HGVs, that is two thirds of the HGVs, and turning right towards Crediton there was a 1453 total including 76 HGVs.

Last year, in June, we watched traffic travelling along Charlotte Street, some of which turned into East Street. We counted on June 14, 16 and 21 and I give the figures for each day, in that order, so that the variation can be seen.

Into East Street from the Exeter direction, total vehicles 1512, 1513 and 1533 and HGVs 72, 71 and 138.

Into East Street from the Crediton direction, total vehicles 2182, 2492 and 2800 and HGVs 156, 131 and 123. Along Charlotte Street, from the Exeter direction total 5224, 5320 and 4279 with HGVs 295,213 and 170. From the Crediton direction, total vehicles 3750, 3570 and 2955, including HGVs 199, 105 and 99.

There are clearly significant differences in total flow and HGV flow.

It should be noted that DCC hope that they will be able to divert 200 HGvs from Exeter Road onto a relief road. Our figures suggest that only if all the HGVs from Exeter which now use East Street were to divert onto the relief road, (72, 71, 138) and returned by the same route, then the average daily flow of 200 HGVs might be reached.

However, DCC have no powers to require all HGVs to divert.

On February 2 this year, we counted vehicles at the junction of Exhibition Road and Commercial Road, which feeds into the Industrial estate.

There was a total of 1,976 vehicles including 127 HGVs from the Mill Street direction and 2018, including 113 HGVs, going towards Mill Street.

We might infer that two thirds of these would use Exeter Road; that is, 75 HGVs.

So if all these came up Exeter Road earlier, then if they were all diverted onto a relief road, that would be 150 HGVs using it.

On Tuesday, February 23, we were counting at Barnstaple Cross. We counted a total of 3162 vehicles travelling towards Crediton from the Copplestone direction, of which there were 151 HGVs.

Twenty per cent of all vehicles and 16 per cent of HGVs took Higher Road.

We recall that at the public exhibition in Crediton, there was mention of DCC counts in 2001 but we have no record of these.

We would like to be able to compare our figures with DCC figures and I have asked DCC officers if I can obtain comparable data from DCC records.

What figures were used by DCC?

We are aware that there is a long-standing traffic problem in Crediton and that this has been brought back into the DCC agenda, because air quality in Exeter Road and the High Street does not satisfy the legal standards.

The choice of routes for a Crediton Link road is due to be discussed at the DCC cabinet next month and councillors will be given predictions of how the air quality in Exeter Road will change depending on which route is eventually built.

These predictions depend on assumptions about how many vehicles will use each of the routes; these assumptions cannot be easily tested.

A survey that we did, suggested that few HGV drivers would use any route except the Valley Route. We have asked DCC councillors to investigate the assumptions made by DCC officers about numbers of vehicles, and in particular HGVs, using each of the proposed routes.

What have DCC officers done to check these assumptions?

The other point, that we would expect DCC to consider, is that while it is acknowledged that any of the proposed routes for the Link road should help to improve air quality in Exeter Road, they cannot affect air quality in the High Street.

It is important, therefore, to examine how each route might be used in a longer term plan to provide traffic improvements designed to bring air quality improvements in the High Street.

What longer term solution to the problem of poor air quality in Crediton High Street can be developed from each of the proposed routes for the Relief Road?

John Boyle

Fordton Cottage

Fordton

Crediton