SANDLEHEATH TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PLAN – IMPLEMENTATION OF PHASE 1
Sandleheath residents will be aware that a Working Group of volunteer local people was formed by our Parish Council in 2023 to prepare a plan to deter the endemic vehicle speeding that our village experiences and which has been the subject of numerous complaints. Speeding affects our safety, quality of life and the environment.
Since then, the Working Group, titled Sandleheath Traffic Action (STA), has been working to generate, then implement a Sandleheath Traffic Management Plan (TMP). In tandem, residents have been kept informed about the TMP’s development through leaflets delivered to houses, village signboards and notices, at Parish Council meetings, on the Parish Council website and through a number of residents who kindly volunteered as representative stakeholders. We are most grateful to the large number of people who have assisted this process, giving us their help, ideas and opinions.
The defining moment was in two meetings held on 25th and 29th April 2024, when some 60 local attendees approved the TMP concept and its various elements, allowing STA to progress.
Subsequently, STA has been working with the Roads and Traffic department of Hampshire County Council (HCC) to formulate and implement Phase 1 of the plan. It has taken rather a long time, but having attained the required capital, from New Forest District Council Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds, and more recently, HCC’s final authority to proceed, Phase 1 will be implemented in our village this year.
What does it include? How will it affect you? Click this link to read a document that describes our TMP concept and the whole of Phase 1 in detail.
If you have any questions about the plan or wish to make an observation, you can email Mike Richardson, the STA Project Manager, at: sandleheath.ta@btinternet.com.
PARISH MEETING
Do come along to the Annual Parish Meeting in the Village Hall at 7.00 pm on Thursday 14th May which will include an STA presentation about the TMP. You’ll be able to ask any questions you might have then. We hope to see your there.
WANT TO GET MORE INVOLVED?
Our STA Project Manager is stepping down later this year after some three years. We need a new volunteer PM to take over the reins and make a real contribution to our community. Would you like to do so? The requirements are enthusiasm for our project, a degree of people and plan management, some writing and presentational skills, and infinite patience. If you’d like to find our more, please contact Mike Richardson in person or at: sandleheath.ta@btinternet.com who can let you know more. Thank you.
The Sandleheath Traffic Action Team
SANDLEHEATH TRAFFIC ACTION – UPDATE 20 MAY 2026
PHASE 1
As advertised in the leaflet delivered to residents in our village earlier this month, Sandleheath Traffic Action (STA) presented our Traffic Management Plan (TMP) to the Annual Parish Meeting on 14th May. The presentation followed the contents of the ‘IMPLEMENTATION OF PHASE 1’ update below. Thereafter, the STA Team thanked the many members of the Sandleheath Community who have contributed to the formulation of our TMP, in many cases giving up their valuable time.
Prices of the various elements of Phase 1 have increased markedly since they were initially assessed and recent increases, not least in materials affected by the current international situation, have made our full Phase 1 plan unaffordable. In consequence, the STA Team highlighted one significant change to the Phase 1 rollout plan described in the last update.
The placing of two red surface patches on Alderholt Road at ‘The bends’ will be deferred. Instead, the issue will be integrated with our plan for a Virtual Footway (VF) along the whole length of the road in TMP Phase 2.
Attendees asked a number of questions and made some useful suggestions. As a result, of the latter, a graffiti-proof coating will be applied to the four Marker Point (MP) signs, and ‘Welcome to’ will be removed from the MP wording to avoid duplication with that on the four Entry Points.
At the end of the meeting, attendees approved overwhelmingly the implementation of Phase 1. It will now take place.
We understand that Hampshire County Council will instigate its TMP measures this summer and the items that the Parish Council is installing will match their schedule.
We will keep you informed of developments and dates on this website.
PHASE 2
TMP Phase 2 will be realised if we are able to raise the required money; some £100,000. New Forest District Council will open a window for applications for Community Infrastructure Levy funds between 01 Jun and 07 Aug 26, and STA will make an appropriate application.
Our plan for TMP Phase 2 includes the Alderholt Road VF, which is currently envisioned as a coloured pathway along the edge of the road, and a number of Informal Crossing Points (ICPs), places where people habitually cross the road in Sandleheath, marked by white lining, bollards, dropped curbs and tactile paving. Depending on our cost estimate, we will be able to afford two or three of these in Phase 2. The five other ICPs we have identified must wait until Phase 3.
The STA Team
