Letter: We have Been Expressing Concern About Speeding Here For Years

Published on: 20 Aug, 2016
Updated on: 20 Aug, 2016

Scene of the incident where a man was killed in what the police suspect was a hit and run incident.

Scene of the incident in St Catherine’s where a man was killed in what the police suspect was a hit and run incident.

From Lorimer Burn

Chairman of St Catherine’s Village association

This is a tragic incident. For years we local residents have been expressing our concern about the speed that cars take that section of road.

It’s a complicated stretch where the road narrows in a dip between two hills. Coming southbound from the town, there’s a left-hand bend with reverse camber and two central reservations. There have been several non fatal incidents here.

30 mph (the legal limit here) is as fast as anyone can safely go, yet residents routinely see cars driving far faster, especially at night when less traffic makes speeding easier and, in the dark, even more dangerous.

The St Catherine’s Village Association ran a Speedwatch Team for several years and persuaded Surrey County Council to introduce limited speed calming measures to the road surface.

However, we’ve known that a speed camera is the only really effective solution to control the speed of vehicles on this challenging section of road.

I do hope this driver can be identified and that the authorities will now give further consideration to the safety of this part of the A3100 road.

Responses to Letter: We have Been Expressing Concern About Speeding Here For Years

Paul Nicholson Reply

August 21, 2016 at 10:05 am

As a local resident with young children who cross this section of Portsmouth Road every day I support Lorimer Burns’ comments. It shouldn’t take tragic deaths for highways authorities to take notice of local concerns but sadly, from experience, it seems that’s the only way for safety measures to get serious consideration.

I would say though that a speed camera can only be one part of the solution. There are multiple danger points on the Portsmouth Road from the town side bus stop to the University of Law entrance where local residents, students and walkers cross. At some key points near the Ye Olde Ship Inn and Sandy Lane junction the pavements offer little or no protection, or are non existent, leaving pedestrians vulnerable to lower speed accidents.

A camera would at best provide one focal point for drivers to watch out for. I strongly feel this whole section, effectively the historic village centre, needs traffic calming measures to force drivers to drive at safe speeds including raised and controlled crossing points and 20 mph zone.

I would urge the council and village association to consider a range of measures to make this stretch safe for everyone.
Ben Paton Reply

August 22, 2016 at 8:19 am

Anyone who has ever dealt with Surrey County Council’s Highways Department knows that getting it to acknowledge any problem on our roads requires a disproportionate effort. When I asked it to introduce a HGV limit on a local lane, something which residents have been requesting for forty years, “Highways” could not even find it on the map and wrote back about a completely different road.

In my experience its automatic policy seems to be to oppose speed and HGV limits. Its default position is that its raison d’etre is to serve its idea of the interests of the motorist not those of the resident. There is an institutional bias against the interests of those who live along country roads which get more dangerous by the year as traffic volume and speed increases. Local government has a naive faith in ‘economic growth’ as an end in itself and simplistic notions of cost cutting.
John Perkins Reply

August 23, 2016 at 10:10 am

Perhaps automatic traffic lights could be installed. The ones which simply flash a message are completely ignored, though they might have more effect if they were to trigger a red light.