We are Slough Borough Council’s Transport Planning team. We plan changes to our roads, footways and public realm.
Background
The UK Government has launched Round 2 of the Levelling Up Fund (LUF2). LUF2 is designed to invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK. The £4.8 billion fund will support town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets. Across the UK, local authorities are eligible to submit bids for the Fund, which was announced at the government’s Spring Statement 2022, and we are submitting a bid.
For more details of the Levelling Up Fund see:
Levelling Up the United Kingdom (UK Government website)
Levelling Up Fund Round 2: prospectus (UK Government website)
Our bid - "Destination Farnham Road"
Slough Borough Council’s bid focuses on two proposed interrelated transport capital investment schemes, which would improve multi-modal transport options and add value by increasing access to employment, housing, leisure and culture, both locally and more widely across the region.
Each proposed scheme responds to specific infrastructure requirements, which, when combined, would deliver a package of significant sustainable transport improvements and public realm upgrades that would:
Such capital investment would also help to:
Farnham Road Public Realm
We want to improve the public realm of Farnham Road (between its junctions with Essex Avenue and Sheffield Road), including introducing safer pedestrian areas, and to improve cycling infrastructure, improve access to local shops and businesses for users of all modes of transport, and reduce car dominance and car use.
We also want to enhance the landscape of the area, restore a sense of place, and identify Farnham Road (between its junctions with Essex Avenue and Sheffield Road) as a distinctive location by strengthening and communicating the area’s character and identity.
We are looking at both sides of Farnham Road between its junctions with Essex Avenue and Sheffield Road.
A successful bid would help to unlock and consolidate this district centre as a key destination. The parade of shops already experiences good footfall, and a number of restaurants and shops attract both lunchtime and evening trade.
A capital investment would help to refresh dated public realm and reallocate road space to reinforce this area’s identity as a key destination, improve connectivity to and around the district centre by sustainable modes of transport, and improve road safety outcomes. By revitalising this area, we would help Farnham Road to become a vibrant, cohesive space for recreation, business and social opportunity.
Figure 1: An artist's impression - possible changes for Farnham Road
The scheme proposal aims to:
By creating:
Farnham Road Bus Accessibility
Farnham Road has a good daytime bus service, with direct links to various parts of the Borough and neighbouring authorities, but the buses can be delayed by traffic congestion. All buses serving Farnham Road are low floor, providing good access to older and disabled people, including wheelchair users, but access to the bus stops is sometimes blocked by parked vehicles, preventing this.
We want to improve the reliability and journey time of buses on Farnham Road by upgrading and revising the phasing of the traffic signals along the full length of Farnham Road within the Borough. We also want to improve access to the bus stops by adjusting their locations where needed, by introducing parking restrictions to prevent vehicles blocking access, and by improving footways and removing clutter.
There is currently little bus priority on Farnham Road, with two stretches of southbound bus lane at the southern end of the road - one in operation at peak times only and one in operation at all times, and bus reliability and journey times are still affected by traffic congestion at certain times of the day.
Figure 1: Extent of proposed Farnham Road Bus Accessibility Scheme
[AWAITING IMAGE]
The proposed scheme would include:
We don’t propose at this stage to introduce additional stretches of bus lane on Farnham Road but we may be able to amend the existing stretches.
These proposed improvements would complement the proposed improvements to the public realm on Farnham Road (between its junctions with Essex Avenue and Sheffield Road) (see above), and would encourage and support use of the bus to and from the north of the borough and beyond.
We are aware that the bridge over the railway line is a particular ‘pinch point’ which affects journey times for buses and other traffic. However, due to the high cost we are not able to include any changes to the bridge in the proposed scheme.
Consultation
We consulted residents, commuters, businesses and stakeholders to give them an opportunity for them to have their say on the vision for each of the three proposed schemes and provide some general feedback on how they could be improved, as we had not yet prepared detailed designs for them.
We asked them how they currently use these areas and facilities, to list any existing problems that need addressing, and to tell us about improvements they would like to see and any potential issues with our vision.
Their insight, feedback and views are important as they will help us to shape the proposed schemes and to draw up detailed designs.
We asked people to talk to their neighbours and the local community and get them involved!
The consultation closed on Thursday 30 June 2022 and we used the insight provided to prepare our bid.
Further information
If you would like further information about these schemes and our bid:
Please state "Destination Farnham Road"
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