|
Chris Wickham
Richmond & Twickenham times, 6th November 2007
Legal constraints meant there was little option but to remove a 20mph speed limit on a controversial stretch of road in Hampton, a senior council officer told a public meeting this week.
Chris Smith, transport policy and parking section manager at Richmond Council , said there was a risk drivers could escape prosecution for any dangerous or illegal actions in Hampton Court Road and Thames Street, the A308, if the limit was not raised to 30mph.
Mr Smith, speaking at the Hamptons area consultation meeting on Monday, October 29, said: "We have had to come to the conclusion it is better to have a 30mph limit we can enforce, and we have been promised the police will enforce it, than a 20mph limit that is not enforceable."
Residents reacted angrily to last month's revelation the 20mph limit was going to be removed as Government guidance states 20mph limits have to be self-enforcing and police do not currently enforce 20mph limits in the capital.
At the meeting there were calls for the limit to be retained and Colin Hunter, who lives in the road, said speed and accidents had been dramatically reduced.
Mr Smith told the meeting 20mph zones cannot be enforced with cameras, only with speed humps or other horizontal deflections, which cannot be placed on the A308 without the agreement of Transport for London (TfL), and added if no measures are put in place to keep speed down, dangerous drivers may be able to escape prosecution if they drive above that limit.
He said the limit had reduced the average speed on that stretch of road from 35mph to 32mph and accidents from between eight and nine a year to between six and seven a year.
"We are in a consultation exercise," said Mr Smith. "We are looking for your views and over the next 18 months we will be looking at various safety issues.
"We are looking to put up signs telling drivers there is a 30mph limit and speed cameras and we will be getting mobile camera enforcement."
Simon Kidd, from Hampton traffic police, said as soon as those signs go in there would be enforcement of the 30mph limit and Mr Smith said other measures such as a pelican crossing on Thames Street could be introduced.
|
