A call has been made for a 20mph speed limit to be introduced for a Kirkby Stephen road.
Addressing the issue of speeding in South Road, Mike Walker told a meeting of the town council that a 20mph speed limit appears to be acceptable at Barnard Castle and there were plenty of other examples across the UK.
“And yet we are told we are not allowed to have it in Kirkby Stephen in a built-up area,” said Mr Walker.
“The footpaths are narrow, it’s a walking route to school – children need to cross the road that live on the east side of South Road to get on to a footpath which is part blocked by cars and then cross over at the zebra crossing further down to get to the primary school.
“Parents along there are rightly concerned. Have we got to wait for a fatality to take action?”
Mr Walker said there was the possibility of having a speed indicator device, but they would probably have to spend up to £3,000 unless the police or highways were prepared to put one in, but that would only sit in one place.
“There are some very sensible speed-controlled traffic lights that we meet on the A75 in Dumfries and Galloway — if traffic exceeds 30mph all the traffic is stopped with a red light which helps people slow down, but that would be a Cumbria Highways issue to install that” said Mr Walker.
The meeting was told that the town’s Speed Watch team had disbanded at the moment as all the active people were in the vulnerable age group for COVID.
“We are all physically getting older and less physically able to stand at the side of the road and in spite of vaccinations, the possibility of other variants of COVID I am unwilling to have elderly teams of people standing shouting at each other at the side of the road and all the young people are now working,” said Mr Walker.
Eden and county councillor Phil Dew said the county council’s traffic management team had been asked to look at several matters including the pedestrian crossing in High Street, the road junctions adjacent to Kirkby Stephen Grammar School, parking in the vicinity of the town’s primary school, and the perennial speeding issue on South Road.
Mr Dew said it was actually the second or third time the South Road speeding issue had been referred to highways.
“The idea of reducing the speed to 20mph when we can’t maintain a speed of 30mph seems a little bit pointless,” said Mr Dew.
But he thought that a portable speed indicating device — like the one which is used on the A685 at Tebay — would probably be a useful addition.
That device, which can be moved to various locations on the road through the village, cost several thousand pounds and was paid for by Tebay Parish Council, the meeting was told.
