Plan to make town a 20mph zone
Wednesday 23rd September 2009, 11:42AM BST.
Council highways chiefs are to investigate calls to make Oswestry town centre a 20mph zone.
A meeting of Oswestry Local Joint Committee last night heard concerns that parts of the town were still being used as a racetrack by “boy racers”.
Inspector Jim Stafford told last night’s meeting that following earlier complaints that the coach park in Oswald Road had been used for “drag racing”, officers had been keeping a close eye on the area.
He said no particular problem had been identified but said he would be examining if an initiative in which residents are trained to monitor speeding traffic could be set up in Oswestry.
But several members of the public at last night’s meeting suggested the whole town centre could be given a 20mph speed limit.
Mr Stafford said sufficient traffic engineering work would have to be carried out so the motorists would stick to the speed.
“I am not sure that would be acceptable in a medieval market town,” he said.
But committee chairman Councillor Martin Bennett said the 20mph suggestion would be taken back to Shropshire Council’s highways officers for further investigation.
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I suggest that the authorities also sort out the abiuse of blue badge car parking tickets. The number of cars parking along Church St and particularly outside Marks and Spencers is outrageous especially when the central car park, in the case of Marks and Spencers, offers parking the width of a road further away.
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I doubt whether the average speed in Oswestry town centre approaches 20 mph anyway with all the illegal parking, mini roundabouts, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings anyway, so to make it a formal 20 mph limit would be no bad thing and be barely noticeable. What’s all the rush for anyway?
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It’s rarely possible to exceed 20mph during the day anyway, and most drivers use their common sense. If the problem is largely boy racers using the town as a ‘race track,’ the issue is that they are knowingly exceeding the existing 30mph limit. Reducing it further is unlikely to make them pay any more regard for it, and instead is likely to penalise otherwise careful drivers who have, in a momentary lapse of concentration, crept up to 25mph. Other strategies are needed; most ‘boy racers’ would check their mirrors before putting their foot down anyway; it’s only likely to catch out drivers who aren’t intentionally speeding.
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