Green light for council's road safety plans

Date: 12/1/2011

New road safety plans have been given the go-ahead by councillors on South Tyneside, after residents from South Boldon requested that their local speed limit be reduced to 20 mph.

According to the Jarrow and Hebburn Gazette, it was found that 77 per cent of people who responded to polls on the issue supported the speed limit being reduced, while 65 per cent also backed the installation of traffic calming measures, such as speed bumps.

One resident of the Lyndons estate in the area claimed that they did not know how drivers were currently able to get up to 30 mph, as the roads were so short and there were many tight corners.

However, Dave Carr, the council's Highways Manager, said that under Department for Transport guidelines, where a 20 mph speed limit is to be introduced, traffic calming measures must be deployed if the average speed in the vicinity is above 24 MPH.

The average speed of drivers on the estate's roads has been found to be 27.1 mph.

Locals will have further opportunity to state their views as the propositions enter a formal consultation.

According to the Gloucestershire Echo, Garry Handley, Chief of the county's road safety partnership, recently warned that speeding is one of the most common factors in accidents on UK roads.

Posted by Sarah Bailey