Council to smooth down tarmac after cars are damaged by speed deterrents

11:00am Saturday 9th February 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Chris Tate, T&A Reporter

Hedley Butterfield with his Mercedes at one of the speed bumps in Nab Wood Drive that he claims is damaging his car Hedley Butterfield with his Mercedes at one of the speed bumps in Nab Wood Drive that he claims is damaging his car

Steep new speed humps installed only days ago in a Shipley neighbourhood are too severe and will have to be smoothed down, Bradford Council has admitted after a flurry of complaints from drivers.

The broad humps aimed at deterring commuters from taking short cuts along roads such as Nab Wood Lane and Nab Wood Drive in Nab Wood have even sparked criticism from councillors.

Shipley Area Committee chairman Councillor David Heseltine (Con, Bingley) told how he hit one of the steep humps in the dark.

“On the first day they were in I turned in Nab Wood Lane and there were no signs saying 20mph, but the humps were already there.

“The signs should have gone in first to warn people.

“The humps are just like doorsteps, there is no grading on them at all.

“You can’t even go over them at 15mph, but the signs are there still saying 30mph,” Coun Heseltine said.

“There was enough controversy over these humps in the first place – they have to be put in right or this is what gives traffic-calming schemes a bad name.”

Councillor Martin Love (Green, Shipley) is a keen supporter of the Nab Wood scheme, but said he had received complaints from angry drivers.

“I’ve had comments that they are higher than supposed to be – the height should be 75 millimetres,” he said.

“I suspect it maybe because they are not finished and need new surfacing in the approach to them.”

He said engineers had been measuring the height of humps installed so far.

Hedley Butterfield, 77, of Nab Lane, said his Mercedes-Benz estate had ‘grounded’ as he drove over a new speed hump outside Fairmount Nursing Home in Nab Wood Drive.

“I went over at the normal speed and it scraped my car,” said Mr Butterfield, who runs an MOT test centre in Halifax.

“There was just me in the car. If there had been three passengers, I’d probably have got stuck. There’ll be marks on the hump where the car’s scrapped.

“We did object to say damage could be caused to cars.

He has met a Council officer to discuss the problem.

Richard Ellis, the council engineer overseeing the Nab Wood scheme, said: “The camber on some of the roads from the centre to its edge is far greater that it should be. This leads to an illusion that the humps are higher than they actually are.

“The issue lies in the fact the rise between the existing road surface up on to the humps is short. The humps should have been constructed with a more circular profile which would have reduced their severity.”

Richard Gelder, Bradford Council transport development manager, said: “We will be asking contractors to carry out further work on the road humps in Nab Wood Lane to make them less severe than they are at the moment.

“We expect that the work will be completed by the end of this month.”

Comments(27)

The Hoffster says...
11:37am Sat 9 Feb 13

So is the Council going to pay for the damage done to the cars?

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Mik_e says...
11:44am Sat 9 Feb 13

Whoever authorised the ramps as they are should be brought to account. Who is going to foot the bill for the extra time and work involved ?
Council tax payers ?
Bradford council is a laughing stock, hundreds of thousands paid to an invisible chief executive and senior officers. What do they actually do to justify such huge salaries ?

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beardedclam says...
12:13pm Sat 9 Feb 13

Drive slower you stupid old fool!

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collos25 says...
12:33pm Sat 9 Feb 13

They did read the article dumbo.

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I'm sparticus says...
12:44pm Sat 9 Feb 13

beardedclam wrote:
Drive slower you stupid old fool!
Show some respect, this gentleman has done nothing wrong by simply driving at the speed limit indicated. He also at no point states any damage was caused to his car simply that it ground out, so the headline of this article is slighlty misleading. It seems simple to me as stated that the reduced speed signs should have been the first works to have been carried out.

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sbr___ says...
1:39pm Sat 9 Feb 13

I am really angry! Until these bumps went in, every evening cars raced each other to get ahead in their rat run. Driving at 30mph is not acceptable to the numerous IDIOTS who tail-gate and try to do dangerous overtaking manoeuvres. This area needs to be made safe and reducing the speed bumps will not help. It is not acceptable that speeding is the norm and tolerated in the Bradford area

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Joedavid says...
1:51pm Sat 9 Feb 13

sbr___ wrote:
I am really angry! Until these bumps went in, every evening cars raced each other to get ahead in their rat run. Driving at 30mph is not acceptable to the numerous IDIOTS who tail-gate and try to do dangerous overtaking manoeuvres. This area needs to be made safe and reducing the speed bumps will not help. It is not acceptable that speeding is the norm and tolerated in the Bradford area
But the speed limit is 30mph.
First thing should have been a reduction in speed limit to 20mph whether humps or not then.

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Outraged English Subject says...
1:55pm Sat 9 Feb 13

This kind of deterrent is not very affective, larger and 4x4 vehicles seem to just fly over them. As for myself when I go over them at a snail’s pace it always seems to give me lower back discomfort. I avoid them like the plague. Nevertheless the speeding issue needs to be addressed properly. Looks like the Council have tried to do it on the cheap and failed.

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Not so simple says...
2:38pm Sat 9 Feb 13

Drive slower and they won't damage your vehicle.

They called speed bumps for a reason.

Secondly I've been on these speed bumps and they are poorly marked and do seem a waste of money as they are far too wide and placed at rather silly places.

Another sound decision by Bradford council and crew. Sack the lot of em.

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loftyme says...
2:58pm Sat 9 Feb 13

"Richard Ellis, the council engineer overseeing the Nab Wood scheme said The humps should have been constructed with a more circular profile which would have reduced their severity" , if he was overseeing the scheme then here is the person to blame, simple!

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is bod says...
3:15pm Sat 9 Feb 13

The same goes for the humps on Avondale Road. They're not marked properly yet. I don't speed and was doing 20 but because they aren't graduated yet my car made a loud bang from under the front wheel. There's also a new one immediately after the old yellow hump which still hasn't been moved.
Poor planning all round

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beardedclam says...
3:47pm Sat 9 Feb 13

collos25 wrote:
They did read the article dumbo.
If he drove slower, the height of the speed bumps wouldn't be an issue. So he's still driving too fast if he claims the bumps are "damaging" his car you muppet.

Simple old fools like this do not like change, hence his desire to moan.

A few people on here claiming they are driving below or on the speed limit yet still having problems with the bumps. Complete load of rubbish. Liars!

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cockadoodledo says...
6:36pm Sat 9 Feb 13

Following the article in the T&A last week about the problems along gilstead Lane, sounds like these speed bumps should be transported to Gilstead Lane and those already their moved into Nab Wood. Pity Cllr Hesletine got caught out it was him that I guess approved the scheme. Sounds like the installation of the scheme has NOT been supervised just left to crap contractors, typical rubbish.

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tinytoonster says...
7:07pm Sat 9 Feb 13

beardedclam wrote:
collos25 wrote:
They did read the article dumbo.
If he drove slower, the height of the speed bumps wouldn't be an issue. So he's still driving too fast if he claims the bumps are "damaging" his car you muppet.

Simple old fools like this do not like change, hence his desire to moan.

A few people on here claiming they are driving below or on the speed limit yet still having problems with the bumps. Complete load of rubbish. Liars!
why dont you go check if he's lying and while you are there lay down and let me run over you! berk!!

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TirNaNog says...
7:54pm Sat 9 Feb 13

Richard Ellis, the council engineer overseeing the Nab Wood scheme, said: “The camber on some of the roads from the centre to its edge is far greater that it should be. This leads to an illusion that the humps are higher than they actually are."

There you are then! It's an illusion that is damaging your cars. What a 2@!
Take them to small claims court and let him convince a judge with that argument.
PS Who's diddling beardedclam's missus?

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Outraged English Subject says...
8:16pm Sat 9 Feb 13

;-)

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Up with the partridge says...
7:14am Sun 10 Feb 13

40 to 50 is the best speed to negate the effect of these bumps. Any slower is uncomfortable and could cause damage. 60 is too fast in a 30 but 40 to 50 is fine.

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seen it all before says...
8:34am Sun 10 Feb 13

somebody should have passed the drawings and spec, if the humps are to spec, Councils fault, if not to spec, contractors fault, but knowing the way Bradford Council work, there will be a number of sub contractors in between!!!!

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seen it all before says...
8:36am Sun 10 Feb 13

just seen a gritter doing 60mph in a 30 limit.

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angry bradfordian says...
11:22am Sun 10 Feb 13

Something doesn't add up about the council's excuse for this. If they're saying it's a problem with the camber, rather than the hump it still means the hump is too big!

I'd like the T&A to find out if:
a) the contractor is being paid more to put it right
b) Why it's going to take until the end of the month to sort it out
c) as it's clearly been designed wrong and/or not supervised when built, is anyone at the council being reprimanded?
If these qualified people worked for a private company they'd be getting a minimum of a verbal warning for wasting the company's money.

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eldwick person says...
1:44pm Sun 10 Feb 13

SPEED BUMPS ARE A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY. They create noise, damage cars but worst of all do not work. For the money wasted on speed bumps we could have things that are really needed like pot hole repairs or more police officers. I drive over huge number of speed bumps another person mentions above on Gilstead Lane. This being a road that I have walked, cycled and driven on for 5 decades and never once seen an accident.

Something like this happened here where the contractors had to come back and WASTE YET MORE MONEY altering the road again. I spoke with a road engineer who said that speed bumps do not work but often a vocal local minority will keep asking for them. Speeding could be stopped with a speed camera - why not install one?

My family now keep track on what happens on Gilstead Lane to try and stop more money being wasted here at a time when our Council is short of money!

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webess says...
1:51pm Sun 10 Feb 13

beardedclam wrote:
Drive slower you stupid old fool!
A speed hump is only a lump of tarmac - it has no knowledge of vehicle speeds. The "bumpiness" of a speed hump is influenced by many factors, of which speed is only one - you might well find it less bumpy to go faster..

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webess says...
1:53pm Sun 10 Feb 13

The T&A has had a stream of failed projects from the Highways Department - the 2+ lane on the A650, the new lights on Harrogate Road, speed humps all over the district etc. Why not downsize the Highways department to just repair the existing infrastructure?

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legallyblonde says...
2:18pm Sun 10 Feb 13

I went on Avondale Rd yesterday and noticed those bumps are far too high - there are grooves in some of them where they have caught exhaust brackets I imagine - they are not sloped at all just wham! and the yellow one hasn't been removed and a new large hump put next to it - I'm sure they are above the limit for this sort of thing.

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Not so simple says...
4:36pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Speed bumps only work for civilised drivers....not the idiots who speed regardless of what the speed limit or population levels say.

In this area i have noted that Most speeders are obviously the young lads in their motors blasting it to wherever it is they are going, but they do slow down on the bumps so not to damage the body kits and alloys etc! Obviously the ones with no insurance or stolen/hired vehicles speed regardless of the size of the speed bump.

however there is also a large proportion of drunks leaving the various pubs and social clubs around that area, I know as I've managed to avoid a fair few accidents when driving past certain bars at certain times. Yes they were old men driving their family motors. The one that sticks in my mind is a chap driving a rover75. He drove through red lights at the baildon junction towards Shipley...just missed my car and another car as he was just too drunk to realise what he'd done. He sped off as 'normal ' and moments later we seen him drive into the Shipley working men's club. A Police patrol car was not far off ( car behind us) and did not see the incident let alone hear any of the cars blowing their horns in panic!

Point is that a wide awake police officer can't see or do anything so what's the chances of a sleeping Policeman doing owt?

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36a says...
4:50pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Seems like I am effectively banned from using these roads too, as my car has a ground clearanceof only 5" as standard.
Less a bit of bounce = Yet another road I cant use.
Bit of a problem as a relative lives in the middle of Nab Wood

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MontyLeMar says...
6:07pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Where's this road again? I feel a touch of whiplash coming on.

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