UPDATE....UPDATE....UPDATE
Wednesday 19th March 2008
TRAFFIC LIGHTS COMPLETED ON TIME READY FOR EASTER

All the work is now

completed and

on time.

Only time will tell

how things will

work out.

Again I will give

my opinion as

to how I think

people will find

the new set up.

Please click on the arrows to go forward and backwards
 

For Heacham people
getting out on to the A149 should be much safer and
quicker at busy
times .

At these busy
times I feel the
main flow
of holiday traffic is
going to be 
affected, but we must wait and
see how things
work out

So in my opinion
there will be
winners and losers.

 
For me personally  I always used to use the Broadway when  going to and from King's Lynn and Hunstanton. I now will have to detour down Nourse Drive and go out via the Lavender Lights to go to King's Lynn which will take longer but could be a lot safer. Travelling back from Hunstanton I can no longer turn right into Broadway so will have to turn right at the traffic lights and again travel via Nourse Drive. Before anyone tells me, I know there are other alternatives but none as quick as they were for me, but on the safety aspect, it must be better................again only time will tell.
 

Below is our report and photos of the work during the weeks before the lights were up and working.

Photos

showing

work

at

Lavender

Junction

at

Heacham 

The

work

should

be

completed

by

Easter

2008

I did not know what to have as a title for this feature, in the end I just made it 'Heacham Traffic Lights at Norfolk Lavender Crossroads' as some of the titles I came up with would probably have upset too many people who are in charge of the work. I just hope the finished article works better than the way the road signs have worked over the last month or so. Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, then this has been a fine example of that saying.

I was not going to do this article until it was all finished and up and running, but everyone I have spoken to and I have spoken to loads of Heacham people about it and they are all fed up with, in my opinion, a terrible example of traffic control signs while the work is in progress. Before I go any further I do realise that there has to be disruption, this is unavoidable but the way the signs have been displayed has been laughable. I will not go into all the problems, I will just report on the journeys I have had either going to Hunstanton or King's Lynn. The journey consists of turning out of School Road into The Broadway, at this point there have never been any signs, so along Broadway I travel and the first signs are close to the junction of the A149 (too late for me to divert down either Nourse Drive or Rolfe Crescent). After the first few journeys I discovered I could only turn left to Hunstanton, now this is fine as long as I know what is happening. The next day I make the same journey and this time I can still only turn left to Hunstanton but they have moved the goal posts. They have now blocked off the left hand side of the road and a man is directing the traffic. He stops me while the traffic is going in the direction of Hunstanton on the A149 (allowing traffic to turn into the Broadway). When the main traffic lights change, he then beckons me forward and tells me to go towards King's Lynn, turn around in Stainsby's garage forecourt and come back towards Hunstanton. By the time I have done this, the lights are showing red while they let 100's of cars come from Hunstanton and Sedgeford. Now if they had put a sign up before Nourse Drive directing me to go down and joining Lynn Road, this could have all been avoided.

Now for a journey to King's Lynn, again no signs as I turn out of School Road into Broadway, by now of course I know I cannot turn right at the junction of the A149, so as the day before I turn down Nourse Drive to Lynn Road, to go out via the Wheatsheaf, the church and back onto the A149 and join the traffic again having traffic lights to help or hinder me.................Oh no they have moved the goalpost yet again, there is a Road Closed Sign stopping me entering the Lynn Road. So then I have to turn around, back down Kenwood Road, back into bottom end of School Road (I started my journey at the top end past the school). Then into the busy High Street, down Pound Lane, Station Road and then Lynn Road, at the church the signs are telling me diversion is to carry on the Lynn Road and not  down Church Lane, so anyone not knowing this would go and join the A149 at the bottom of Redgate Hill, nearly into Hunstanton, and remember I want to go to King's Lynn.

I just hope that the work is completed before Easter as promised, but I for one am not sure if this is going to be the answer to the problems, it will certainly work at the Lavender Junction to let traffic out onto the A149 at busy times (Sundays in the Summer mainly). But will it make for other congestion, with traffic coming from King's Lynn wanting to turn into Broadway, normally with albeit at its worse slow moving traffic you would be able to turn into Broadway without any hold ups, now with the lights I can see that on busy Sundays in the summer  there will be long tail backs towards King's Lynn making it frustrating when you want to turn left into Broadway as you will see the turning but as the traffic lights at the Lavender are at red , cars are stopped not allowing you entry (very frustrating if you are about two cars away from the turning.

At last on Monday 25th February a clear notice has been put on the Lynn Road at the junction with Nourse Drive saying for 2 weeks the Lynn Road going towards the A149 will be closed..............great, but at the Wheatsheaf they have a similar notice, but Lynn Road from the Wheatsheaf to the next sign is not closed, so why can they not have a notice 'Road Closed to A149 with access only to Nourse Drive. At Easter I will hopefully have new photos of the working traffic lights to add to this feature.

I would like to make a suggestion to people coming from the King's Lynn direction who are visiting Heacham, that they turn left at Lamsey Lane and avoid any possible delays while the work is in progress. Obviously if you are travelling from Hunstanton you would turn right at the bottom of Redgate Hill onto the old Lynn Road. This way you will avoid all the problems.
LIGHTS ARE NOW ALL WORKING ( WEDNESDAY 19TH MARCH 2008 )

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