Warning on speed of traffic in village

Thursday 27th August 2009, 1:34PM BST.

Traffic travelling through a north Shropshire village where a 19-tonne piece of machinery fell off the back of a lorry and smashed into a house needs to be slowed down, councillors have been warned.

And the main A495 road through Welshampton is not fit for purpose, one villager told a meeting last night.

Ian Fletcher, who lives yards away from the scene of an accident in the village on Saturday where the piece of machinery hit the side of the 300-year-old Sycamore Cottage, said cracks had been forming in his house because of traffic.

He was speaking at a meeting of Welshampton and Lyneal Parish Council.

Mr Fletcher said the road had been adequate in 1960 but was not suitable for heavy loads now.

“There’s too much volume of traffic, there’s too much weight of traffic and there’s too much speed of traffic,” he said.

“The road is not fit for the amount of vehicles we have on the roads today.”

He added: “There are cracks forming all over the place because of the traffic.”

Mr Fletcher said: “We have got to slow the traffic down before we end up with a serious accident.”

He asked if satellite navigation systems were to blame.

Parish council chairman Chris Symes said: “We have discussed this with the police before and the reality is it is a free country, you can drive down whatever road you want to drive down.”

View more: A49 news, North Shropshire news, Welshampton news.