News

Cllr Baker said measures such as white lines could be considered
advertisement

Heathlands Road campaigners to fight on

By Caroline Cook
January 19, 2012

Worried campaigners who were calling for the speed limit of a Wokingham road to be reduced have vowed to carry on their fight with new proposals for the road.

Families living and working in Heathlands Road submitted a petition to the council in September last year calling for the speed limit to be reduced to 40mph for the entire length of the road.

The proposal was rejected by the council, but those living in the road relaunched their campaign with a public meeting on Friday, January 13.

Patricia Daniels, who lives in Heathlands Road and led the original petition, said the campaigners had come up with other proposals which they hoped the council would consider.

She said: “From the meeting it was clear there is no possibility of having the speed limit reduced.

“This is a rural road which has no lighting and no pavements and the speed limit is 60mph.

“However the executive member for transport did ask us to suggest ways the road could be improved and a number of ideas were made.”

Among the ideas suggested was to paint white lines down the road to make it clear which lane vehicles should be travelling in.

A mirror positioned opposite Heathlands Court was also suggested to help people trying to pull out of the road.

Mrs Daniels said: “Ideally we still want it to be 40mph along the whole length of the road.

“It is 50mph as you come off Nine Mile Ride then it becomes 60mph very quickly.

“It’s going past two schools, a craft village and a garden centre and our main concern is about safety for pedestrians.”

Mrs Daniels said those living in Heathlands Court are unable to walk out of their road as there is too much danger from passing traffic.

She also said it means pupils living near to Holme Grange School are unable to walk to the school, despite living so close.

Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for transport, said the council had looked into the speed of the road but had not found a need to reduce the speed limit.

He said: “If you can imagine, every single one of our 1,700 roads can all have the potential for accidents.

“That is the nature of the road and a car.

“Therefore we have to review tangible measures about whether we need to do something about speeding in road X rather than road Y.”

Cllr Baker said accident statistics are used to consider whether speed needs to be changed and the council also discusses changes with Thames Valley Police.

Cllr Baker also said other measures such as white lines could be considered.

| View Comments (8)

« Previous Story | Next Story »

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.

Most recent user comments 8 of 8

I agree that a pavement would be much more use than a reduced speed limit.

CMA
20/01/2012 at 13:39

Anyone who has walked to and from the Crooked Billet, in order to avoid drink driving, is very aware how dangerous speeding traffic can be in the area.

PoneRana, Wokingham
20/01/2012 at 12:45

"She also said it means pupils living near to Holme Grange School are unable to walk to the school, despite living so close."

Hmm I wonder how many pupils at the £11,500 a year private school actually happen to live within walking distance of it?

HatsOfDoom
19/01/2012 at 18:51

All speed limits are recommended, the Police can as easily enforce 40 as they can 60, I can't see a problem. If they don't want to, that is a different matter.

Zero Tolerance
19/01/2012 at 14:53

Surely Mrs Daniels should be campaigning to have a pavement constructed rather than the speed limit reduced. I can't imagine that walking along in a 40mph zone road is that much more reassuring than walking in the road in a 60mph zone.

As for "paint white lines down the road to make it clear which lane vehicles should be travelling in", I should hope that all road users have confident on what side of the road they should be using.

RHW
19/01/2012 at 14:43

PoneRana simply changing a speed limit on a road does not necessarily mean a reduction of speed of vehicles! All roads have a "natural" speed, for example a long straight dual carriageway will have a much higher natural speed than a twisty rural minor road. So you need to match the legal speed to that of the natural speed. Even then you will get people who will travel in excess of that speed limit so you have to have some mechanism to enforce that speed limit.

This is where the Police come in as they are the only legal authority to enforce that limit. The council has NO legal authority to enforce speed limits. The Council always consult the police about their views on any reduction of speed limits. If they do not support such an action then we will not reduce that limit as we know such an actio would have ZERO chance of being enforced.

Please remember that the objective of a speed limit reduction is to stop traffic speeding and you need acceptible enforcement to make sure that happens.

Cllr Keith Baker
19/01/2012 at 13:31

If the road has no street lighting or pavements, doesn't that mean it's not designed for pedestrian use? And if there are no pedestrians, why should the speed limit be reduced?

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
19/01/2012 at 12:39

Is there any logical reason why the speed limit should not be reduced? There is a strong argument for the speed limit on all rural roads that have buildings along side to be reduced to at most 50mph and in many cases to a lower value.