Lower High Street Congestion.

Any Tarvin resident who drives along the Lower High Street will know that this can be an extremely tricky bit of road to negotiate. Meeting a large lorry or bus can add to the challenge. Residents who park their cars on the Lower High Street also experience the noise and pollution that occurs when large vehicles use the road.
The Parish Council has talked to Highways on a number of occasions to try and find a solution, though with little success.

In July a site meeting stressed that any action to lower the speed limit or to restrict the weight limits on the road would have to be evidence based from a 12 hour traffic count. A fuller survey to assess the number and route of HGVs i.e. using the Lower High Street as a short-cut to the A51, believed to be the source of the problem, would cost £1,000 with the Parish Council funding 50% of this.
Though there wasn't a specific number of HGVs that defined a traffic problem, the Council were dismayed to find that large agricultural vehicles, a local problem, were NOT defined as HGVS.
In an attempt to look at the problem from a different angle it agreed that perhaps signage saying ''Unsuitable for HGVs' could be erected at each village entrance in an attempt to curb short-cut journeys. However the Council has now been informed that such signs are usually used to indicate routes where HGVs can get stuck or are using very narrow, unsuitable rural lanes. This is not the case in Tarvin, where a number of larger vehicles have a legitimate right to come into the village to make deliveries.

Some new road signage soon to be installed, will indicate that the route to Pool Bank from the south should be via the bypass and the A54, which might help a little. However the Parish Council concluded that the main problem was the density of parking down the road, a problem that has no immediate solution. They agreed that, for the time being, they would not support the detailed traffic assessment.

The Council has been pleased with the time given by Highways officers to this problem, and for the detailed explanation given to them about traffic regulation, national standards and costs. The Highways Department have also not closed the door on further discussions in the future.
Regrettably, with the increase in vehicular traffic and the growth of the village, this is not a problem that will go away.