I am delighted to tell you that the new crossing of the Butts Road was approved on Monday (14th May) by Keith Estlin, the Executive Member for the Environment. The design, consultation and building will be completed as soon as possible, probably by September. It will be a light-controlled toucan crossing allowing both pedestrians and cyclists to cross and will be close enough to Borovere Lane to encourage pedestrians to use it whether they are going into town or to the Butts School.
A similar toucan crossing of Whitedown Lane will be installed at the junction with Chawton Park Road. This will be funded by the developer as part of the planning permission for houses on the Treloar Hospital site.
The Alton Transport Study has been revived. The plan is to issue a consultation document in the autumn, jointly with Alton Town Council. Consultations are expensive and it is important to get the document right. So, at the moment, the homework is being done by the Town and County Councils, together, using the input from the preliminary consultation nearly two years ago.
The aim of the study is to guide spending between April 2003 and March 2006 with £25,000 in the first year and £100,000 in each of the remaining two years. After the major work in Alton a few years ago, it was inevitable that there should be a lull in spending on Alton but we are now back in the budget. We need a full debate on the priorities and the consultation will provide that but, in the mean time, I would welcome suggestions on any aspect of traffic management and highway works.
There is good news for Alton bus users. There has been a rethink on some routes that were going to be cut. The Saturday bus service from Alton to Basingstoke has been spared, so has the Saturday service from Brown Candover to Alton. These services will continue unchanged. Negotiations are still in progress on the Saturday services from Alton to Bordon and from Alton to Petersfield but I am hopeful that there will be some Saturday service on these routes, albeit a reduced one. I have already thanked John Mariner at HCC for all the work he has done to achieve this good result.