Old Basing
and LychpitTraffic Action Group
Old Basing
and LychpitWe would like to confirm the route for the march to be held on Friday 24th November at 8.15am. Please join us when we assemble outside ‘The Topiary’ Hairdressers in The Street. We will walk along The Street to the junction with Crown Lane. We will walk up Crown Lane to the Fiveways Traffic lights and then turn left to arrive outside St.Mary’s Primary School at about 08.45
We want to draw the attention of drivers who use Old Basing as a cut through or Rat-Run. We want them to slow down and be more considerate to village residents. We want Hampshire County Council to re-examine the situation and propose a properly funded solution acceptable to Villagers, Pedestrians and Drivers alike. We want to be able to walk through our village in safety at any time of day.
If you are not able to walk with us please show your support by standing at your driveway on the day with a demonstration poster. Posters of any size are very welcome!
Please email us details of any incidents of accidents, bad driving or safety
issues that you have witnessed. Contact us at oldbasingtraffic@yahoo.co.uk
Why not join the ongoing debate hosted on the forum pages at
www.basinga.org.uk ?
We would like as much information as possible to petition
Hampshire County Council to make our village roads safer for all.
If you care about the village environment and want a solution for us all
Please come out and support us on the Friday the 24th
We invite you to take part in a Residents/Parents Walk to School Protest on Friday 24th November at 8.00am. Please join us when we meet in The Street, outside The Topiary Hairdressers. We intend to arrive outside St.Mary’s Primary School at about 8.40am. If you are not able to walk with us please show your support in any way you can. Why not display a demonstration poster prominently in your garden/window?
The Old Basing & Lychpit Traffic Action Group has been formed to campaign for safer roads within the Parish. Our aim is to raise public awareness and engender debate regarding the complex traffic dilemma faced by the village. We wish to draw the attention of drivers who use the village as a cut through or Rat-Run. We would like them to slow down and take into consideration the concerns village residents whose environment they are damaging. We would like them to consider the safety of school children who are unduly put at risk from speeding, badly driven vehicles on a daily basis. We also wish to encourage Hampshire County Council to re-examine traffic flow through ALL parish roads and propose as suitably funded solution.
To enable debate and open discussion, there is now a Web-forum for the use of all residents. It is accessible at www.Basinga.org.uk Information about our campaign is regularly updated on our ‘Host Pages’ webpage. To join the debate and share you own thoughts on the matter, please follow forum link. It is possible to contribute anonymously if you do not wish to be identified. It is also possible to contact organisers of OB<AG via our email address at oldbasingtraffic@yahoo.co.uk Tell us the details of any traffic related incidents that you have experienced or witnessed. We would like as much information as possible to petition Hampshire County Council to make our village roads safer for all.
Please support us as we walk next Friday. The OB<AG would like to thank you for reading this message and encourage you to take part in the ongoing debate.
For many years the community of Old Basing and Lychpit has sought to adapt to
society’s ever increasing reliance on the motorcar. Within the Parish boundary,
our local authorities have responded to this continually changing and
challenging evolution with varying degrees of success, initially by the
installation of the Fiveways traffic lights and subsequently the construction of
strategically positioned pinch points and additional roadside signage.
Unfortunately these measures have had limited effect and now in 2006 we are
approaching a point where through traffic causes gridlocked saturation and
universal discontent. A point at which, quite simply, something must be done
before the unique quality of village life is forever lost beneath the rumbling
tyres of hundreds of unwanted cars and lorries. The high-speed passage through
the village by vehicles whose drivers have little or no concern for the welfare
or well being of local residents and their families has become dangerous,
thoroughly unpleasant and wholly unacceptable.
In Old Basing, the origins and topography of the village road network can be
traced back to the mudded cart tracks established before and during the
construction and subsequent destruction of Basing House in the 1530's. These
local tracks became more substantial during the upheaval caused by the arrival
of the London and Southampton Railway during its construction in the late
1830's. The village school, established on land donated by Lord Bolton in 1866,
provided yet further impetus. However, it was the arrival of the internal
combustion engine and a subsequent requirement for surfaced roads that
encouraged the further growth and development of the road network. Since this
time, the village and neighbouring areas have expanded exponentially, far beyond
the original design specifications of the highway infrastructure. The addition
of the estates of Byfleet and Belle View, the construction of the M3 motorway
and in the 1980's, the development of housing in Lychpit and the ever expanding
conurbation of Chineham have all contributed to the growing number of cars
passing through the village.
In recent years the phenomenal expansion of Chineham and the rapid growth of
domestic and business premises in nearby Hook have served to create two daily
peaks of traffic. To local residents this is a situation that seems more in
keeping with the suburbs of London rather than to the narrow and winding streets
of a small Hampshire village. Another controversial variable that is
inextricably linked to fluctuating levels of peak traffic has been the change of
social attitude regarding the transport of children both to and from our local
schools.
So, through no fault of its own, the strategic location of the Old Basing/Lychpit
corridor, situated directly between the A30 London Road, the A33 Reading Road
and local junction of the M3 motorway at Blackdam Roundabout has actually become
its Achilles Heal. Whilst offering excellent transport links to local residents
it has also become a well used cut through or 'Rat-Run' for other road users
travelling between the two main roads, who seeking to avoid the frustratingly
slow and often intimidating vortex of traffic at Blackdam Roundabout
In the last year or so the village streets of Lychpit and Old Basing and
particularly the arterial roads of Pyotts Hill, Hatch Lane, Milkingpen Lane and
The Street have all seen traffic reach unacceptable levels. The frustration
experienced by road users has lead to increasing instance of verbal abuse,
speeding and minor accidents. Villagers walking along narrow village pavements,
many of which were originally constructed more than 30 years ago have been
brushed by passing vehicles on more than one occasion. Consequently it will come
as no surprise to learn that many residents of Old Basing and Lychpit now
believe that the anarchic and uncontrolled flow of traffic through our village
represents a very real and genuine danger to life. It can only be a matter of
time until an innocent bystander is maimed or killed by a thoughtless driver
unless something is done to draw the village's increasingly desperate plight to
the attention of the local authorities.
This is why the Old Basing and Lychpit Traffic Action Group has been formed. It is our intention to raise public awareness of our plight. We also hope to act as a catalyst for democratic open debate and to be able to provide constructive suggestion and comment should the opportunity arise.
With the support of our local MP and with attention from radio, television and the local media, the campaign has enjoyed a successful and well received launch with three Public Demonstrations involving peaceful marches from Hatch Lane, Pyotts Hill and The Street to the Infant and St.Mary’s Junior Schools. To follow on from this, it is vitally important that we maintain momentum and keep up the pressure that has now been brought to bear. This is where the thoughts and opinions of village residents are vital. If we seek to create enlightened management and a solution to this controversial situation, we must take into account the views and aspirations of all residents rather than that of the select few.
Through this webpage, our section in Basinga Extra Forums and our contact
e-mail addresses (oldbasingtraffic@yahoo.co.uk),
we invite you to express you views on the subject. We welcome all thoughts and
musings on the matter, and undertake to address specific issues where we are
able and to provide feedback if at all possible. We will be updating the Webpage
at regular intervals to let you know how the campaign is going.
top
These are from the first march on Friday 3rd November along Hatch lane.
Please click on an image for a larger view.
 Demonstration gets underway |
 Organised chaos in lower Hatch Lane |
 Our village is not a rat run |
 Perplexed Policeman appreciates the extent of the problem |
 Speeding dustcart approaches the junction of Crown Lane and the Street. |