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Councillors vote to increase speed limit outside school
Jun 23, 2009
THE speed limit outside a school in Barnard Castle will be increased – despite objections from residents and an MP.
The road outside Barnard Castle School is currently a 30mph zone, but Durham County Council last week decided to make it a 40mph area. The council said the limit should be increased because drivers were ignoring the 30mph signs.
The highways department said the changes would actually improve safety – even though motorists will be able to drive quicker outside the school gates.
The Government is considering introducing more 20mph zones outside schools, but council officials said a 20mph area should not be enforced in Newgate because “collisions involving children are rare” on the road.
Some readers thought the proposal to increase the limit was an April fool joke when the Mercury first reported the proposal on April 1.
Objection letters were sent to the council, including one from Teesdale’s MP, Helen Goodman.
She made further protests against the decision this week and called for a 20mph area on the road.
Ms Goodman said: “I believe that the council should reconsider this decision particularly in view of the fact that, in April, the Government launched a consultation road safety strategy called A Safer Way.
“One of the proposals that is part of the consultation is reducing speed limits from 30mph to 20mph in urban locations.”
In a letter, one resident said: “Increasing the speed limit to 40mph outside of the school will have a negative effect on overall road safety as vehicles already have complete disregard of the speed limit and persist in breaking the speed limit.”
The entrance to Barnard Castle School, in Newgate, is currently covered by the 30mph limit, while another entrance leading to the Barnard Castle Prep School is in the derestricted speed limit area.
But the highways committee decided on Friday to approve proposals for a 40mph speed limit, covering all of the schools’ entrance and exit roads.
Terry Collins, the council’s corporate director of neighbour services, said the current 30mph zone “lacks credibility due to the lack of roadside development frontage”.
In a report to the council’s highways committee, Mr Collins said objections should be overruled and that five people living nearby backed the scheme.
The Department for Transport (DfT) says motorists are more likely to kill a pedestrian driving at 40mph than 30mph.
This year, the Government published proposals to help cut road deaths by a third by 2020, including introducing 20mph zones
in streets around schools. But the council said: “The DfT encourages highway authorities to use 20mph zones outside of schools to address locations with a poor accident record. Research into road traffic collisions in the vicinity of schools within County Durham has thankfully shown that collisions involving children are rare. This scenario is likewise represented outside of Barnard Castle School.”
The council estimates that 2,700 vehicles drive past the school each day, at a mean average of 34.6mph to 38.3mph.
Cllr James Rowlandson, who represents the Barnard Castle East ward, said: “I do not believe speed limits should be increased. They are a guideline for all motorists and should be enforced. If a 30mph area is made a 40mph zone, it gives licence for people to go faster.”