St James Home Zone Scheme
Welcome to the St James Home Zone website. On this site you have all the information you need to find out what has happened to date and what is going to happen in the future.
What is a Home Zone?
Firstly if you are looking at this website for the first time and have not been involved with the consultation to date you might be wondering what a Home Zone actually is. So here is a brief overview of what Home Zones are and about what they strive to achieve.
The term “Home Zone” is a road space that is shared equally between pedestrians and vehicles, and where the quality of life of the residents and stakeholders take president over the ease of traffic movement.
The aim of a Home Zone is to change the way streets are used by improving the residents and stakeholders quality of life and by encouraging them back onto the streets to use them as a place to meet and socialise. This is done by making the streets a safer and more attractive place to be. This is achieved by enhancing the environment and reducing traffic speeds to around 10mph.
Home zone schemes can turn streets into a valued public space and foster a sense of community, increase natural surveillance and therefore deter crime, decrease congestion, pollution and noise and enhance social inclusion. They are not “anti-car” schemes; they merely reduce the dominance of cars and make the residents feel more able to use the streets as social spaces.
A number of home zone schemes have been constructed in the United Kingdom and the indications are that increased activity is occurring in the streets. People are much happier with their environment and crime levels have decreased. By installing home zone schemes, the resident’s quality of life has drastically improved. In home zone areas throughout the country house prices have risen from 10-58 per cent of their regional value and properties are selling faster than in areas outside the home zone.
The home zone concept is unlike other highway schemes as the design is based on what the residents and local community require and therefore the ideas will come from the local residents. As professional engineers we, in the Planning and Transport Department are there to guide you in the right direction. As this consultation process is largely based on allowing you, the residents to take some control, the consultation process for a home zone scheme can take a long time, normally between 1 and 2 years.
Why St James’s Square
In the late 1990’s residents from St James’s Square have lobbied the Council to set up an arrangement which would create a Home Zone scheme that would benefit residents of the St James’s Square and Parkwood Road.
In 2000 the Council applied for funding from the “Home Zone Challenge Fund” that was set up by the Government to encourage Authorities to progress these schemes. Unfortunately the Council’s application was unsuccessful and the scheme was deferred.
The Council is committed under the Local Transport Plan (LTP) to consult on Home Zone schemes and therefore in April 2006 the scheme consultation began. Top
Scheme Plans
Scheme Plans can be viewed/downloaded below (Adobe PDF).
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Forthcoming Events
- Home Zone Exhibition Day, Saturday 21 June 2008
To be held in St James's Square 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Top
Newsletters
Newsletters can be viewed/downloaded below (Adobe PDF).
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Progress to Date
So what has been done?
April – June 2006
Initially meetings were held with Square Routes (the residents group from St James’s Square that initially requested for a Home Zone) to discuss the future of the scheme and the best way forward.
July – August 2006
Following a number of meetings members of Square Routes, a resident of Parkwood Road and members of Bournemouth Borough Council went to Plymouth to visit some of the Home Zone schemes that have been implemented there. This gave the residents an idea of what the schemes are all about and the types of features they could expect to include within their Home Zone design.
More meetings were held and a Home Zone Launch Day was planned to officially commence the scheme consultation.
September – October 2007
The Home Zone Launch Day was held in St James’s Square on 30 September. Consultation questionnaires were posted to all residents in the affected area two weeks prior to the event and they were handed out to people on the day that had not received them. The event was very successful with over 100 people attending and commenting on how they felt about the scheme. It showed that a vast majority of people were in support of the scheme.
The questionnaire results were analysed and again this showed support for the scheme and gave an indication about what type of features people wished to see incorporated.
November 2007 – October 2007
Following the Launch Day a Home Zone Steering Group was set up. The Steering Group nominated themselves onto the group by filling in the relevant part of the questionnaire. The group consists of 12 members with representatives from the following:
- 6 – St James’s Square
- 1 – Parkwood Road
- 1 – Harvey Road
- 1 – Corpus Christi Church
- 1 – Corpus Christi School
- 1 – St Thomas Garnet School
- 1 – Anglo European College of Chiropractic
The Steering Group had their first meeting in November 2006 and worked extremely hard to produce concept designs for the scheme based on what the local residents and stakeholders would like.
In August 2007 a design Consultants, Mouchel Ltd were appointed to produce the scheme concept designs. Following various meetings with the Steering Group and Bournemouth Borough Council 2 concept designs were agreed upon.
November 2007
These designs were taken to a Design Workshop Day for all residents and stakeholders to view and to make comment upon. At the design workshop day a number of residents expressed concerns over the scheme design. The Steering Group members, Council representative and the Consultants were available to answer questions that they might have.
It became clear that a very small minority of people were greatly opposed to the scheme and therefore the Steering Group, Council representatives and Consultants are working to address these concerns within the scheme design.
December 2007 – May 2008
The Steering group re-elections took place from January to May 2008.
The Steering Group, Consultants and Council Officers have been fine tuning the feasibility designs to get them prepared for the Home Zone Exhibition Day to be held in summer 2008 (on a date yet to be agreed). The changes are to address concerns bought up by local residents at the Design Workshop Day.
When a date for the Home Zone Exhibition Day has been arranged, details will be sent to local residents and will be put on the website. Top
Steering Group Meetings - Agendas
Steering Group Meetings Agendas can be viewed/downloaded below (Adobe PDF).
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Steering Group Meetings - Minutes
Steering Group Meetings Minutes can be viewed/downloaded below (Adobe PDF).
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Home Zone Contact Details
Road Safety Project Engineer: Stephen Hoyle
Tel: 01202 454732
E-mail: steve.hoyle@bournemouth.gov.uk
Road Safety Team Leader: Rob Wilson
Tel: 01202 454871
E-mail: rob.wilson@bournemouth.gov.uk
Road Safety Technician: Dawn Harper
Tel: 01202 454679
E-mail: dawn.harper@bournemouth.gov.uk Top
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