A new 20mph speed limit could be introduced outside a Burnham-On-Sea school at peak times of the day after town councillors this week debated safety improvements.
Town councillors decided that St Andrew’s School in Love Lane is the location with the highest need for a new community-funded speed limit in order to boost safety.
During a meeting, town councillor Barbara Vickers said St Joseph’s School already has a 20mph sign outside, while King Alfred School also has speed reduction measures, and Churchfield School has a school crossing patrol.
She added: “The one local school that doesn’t have a 20mph speed limit is St Andrew’s and there is a lot of road activity there with an ambulance station, doctors surgery, and lots of passing traffic going in and out of town.”
Cllr Vickers, pictured below, added: “I suggest we pay the County Council £500 for an assessment of the location. If the study says it is a good location for a speed limit, I suggest we set aside the £15,000 implementation cost in our budget so the work can be carried out next year.”
Cllr Ganesh Gudka said: “I think it’s positive that the study would be evidence-based – it would be £500 well spent to find out whether it is the right thing to do. I think we should also be prepared for the possibility that the study’s outcome is not clear cut one way or the other which may make the decision more difficult on whether it would be the best use of £15,000 but let’s see the evidence first.”
However, Cllr James Warren said: “Although I believe there should be 20mph limits outside every school, I personally don’t believe there is a need for a 20mph sign here because it has reduced speed anyway because of the location.”
However, Cllr Roger Keen added he thinks the problem is not the speed of traffic, but the density of the traffic at peak times.
A resident in the audience of the meeting told councillors she thinks the real speed hot spot is in nearby Oxford Street, rather than Love Lane, which the Mayor Cllr Lesley Millard said would be considered.
Councillors voted narowly in favour of proceeding with a £500 feasability study on introducing the new 20mph speed limit outside St Andrew’s School with a view to putting £15,000 aside in the next budget if the plans proceed.
The debate came after town councillors were recently invited to attend a briefing outlining Somerset Council’s position on 20mph speed limits in line with its manifesto commitment to ‘work with communities to make 20mph speed limits the norm outside schools, in residential areas, our city, town and village centres’’.
The county council adds that factors to be considered during its study when reviewing a speed limit is “history of collisions; road geometry and engineering; road function; compositions of road users; existing traffic speeds; and the road environment.”
Top image from Flickr user Edinburgh Greens via Creative Commons License
