Archive for category: Traffic Calming

The Parish Council have been made aware of Parishioner’s concerns regarding the 20mph zone, namely the placement of speed cushions and the white road markings.

Unfortunately, the Parish Council do not have the relevant expertise regarding the technical and legislative requirements. With this in mind, the Parish Clerk has asked WNC Highways to respond to the issues raised.

This topic will be raised as an agenda item on Monday 17th November, 7pm at the Village Hall.

The Clerk will post updates to this page, when received.

UPDATE – 20th November 2025:-
The Parish Council would like to provide an interim update from West Northamptonshire Council:-

• WNC will review the design and possibly consider extending the cushions on Moulton Lane to beyond the properties and possibly install a supplementary pair on the eastern side of Boughton past the last property.
• WNC will also assess whether they may add a set of cushions on Howard Lane, as requested.
• WNC will send updated drawings for information and will have to engage with the residents immediately affected due to the proximity to the vehicle accesses.
• Due to the lead time to order extra cushions, they will probably install them in January 2026 depending on the supply chain.
• Signs for a 20mph zone are at the access points into the zone. Only a short section of Butchers Lane is public highway, this is why the roundels do not continue further down.
• The roads that feed into Howard Lane are “culs-de-sac” and are unlikely to attract drivers’ speed greater than 20mph.
• The speed limit roundels provided are the smallest size permitted under the regulations (4300mm).
• The installed speed cushions comply with the national standards included in the Traffic Advisory Leaflet 4/94 that advises against exceeding 75mm height. This is also what emergency vehicles and bus companies would expect, to balance traffic calming measures whilst considering motorists’ comfort, noise pollution etc.
• WNC have to install either cushions or roundels every 60m to 100m of each other bearing in mind driveways, junctions and any obstacles that may prevent their installation.
  WNC will monitor how these measures work and reassess if we need to add more markings in Spring 2026.

The implementation of the 20mph zone is referred to as “Phase 1”. It is intended that this work should be complete by Friday 7th November 2025 (so not to interfere with the Bonfire event), however this is subject to weather conditions and unforeseen events.

w/c 6 October 2025

• Communication including letter drop to all households with a detailed factsheet.
• Proceed with any enabling works e.g. removal of old signs.
• Finalise the design based on GPR survey.

 From 13 October to 24 October 2025: Phased surfacing works.

• Vyse Road: from 13 to 15, and from 20 to 21 October.
• Howard Lane: 16 – 17 October.

Sections of surfacing will take place to facilitate the future installation of the cushions. That will happen in 2 separate stages: remove and rebuild the first (bottom) layer of 150mm to strengthen the base and let it cure for a few days, then rebuild the second and third layers of surfacing i.e. length of 12 m and depth of 120mm. Sacrificial surfacing will be laid between the 2 stages so anyone can have access to the properties in a safe manner until the final surfacing is laid.

From 30 October to 7 November 2025: phased installation of the speed cushions and road markings.

• Moulton Lane: 30 – 31 October.
• Howard Lane: 3 November.
• Vyse Road: from 4 to 6 November.
• Hymfreys Lane, Church Street, Butcher’s Lane: 7 November

w/c 10 November – Planned completion of the works i.e. Phase 1.

WNC’s objective is to complete the works outside the school during the half term break in October, whilst allworks of phase 1 may be complete by Friday 7th November 2025. If there are any delays, traffic management will be removed to ensure safe access to the village for Bonfire Night on 8th November and will be reinstated on Monday 10th November if necessary.

w/c 24 November 2025: installation of 2 Variable Activated Signs (VAS)

• Vyse Road: from 24 to 26 November.
• Moulton Lane: from 26 to 28 November.

In parallel, KIER will develop the preliminary and detailed design for the supplementary improvements for the implementation of Phase 2. These works will take place from early 2026. Once complete, WNC will resurface Vyse Road, Howard Lane, and Moulton Lane in Spring / Summer 2026.

The Parish Council will prepare an update about what “Phase 2” currently looks like but it is subject to change.

As detailed in the minutes of previous Council meetings:-

• WNC and Boughton Parish Council have been negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the traffic ameliorating scheme to be implemented in accordance with condition 25 of the NWRR planning permission.
• A draft of the Memorandum of Understanding is posted below.
• The drawing referred to in the Memorandum of Understanding “Boughton – DR – CH – 006, Rev P2” is also detailed below.
• A working group consisting of WNC, Kier and Boughton Parish Council meet at a design workshop and site walkover to discuss potential other improvements to the village. The finalised list of their discussions is currently under review and the Parish Council will provide an update at the next ordinary Parish Council meeting.

6. DRAFT Memorandum of Understanding re Condition 25 (pdf) Boughton Traffic Calming -DR – CH – 006, Rev P2