A CALL has been made to reduce the speed limit of some of Wokingham borough’s roads in a bid to increase road safety.
Campaigners want Wokingham Borough Council to halve 60mph speed limits and have launched a petition for residents to sign.
Simon Chapman, who lives in Kiln Green, has seen at first hand the potential dangers of the speed limit on narrow roads without footpaths.
He is hoping 1,500 people will show their support so the proposal can be debated in a full council meeting later this year.
He says there are numerous narrow residential lanes without footpaths around Wargrave, Sonning, Hare Hatch and Kiln Green – all part of the new Thames ward. These include Bear Lane, Blakes Lane, Blakes Road, Castle End Road, Dark Lane, Milley Lane, Mumbery Hill, Scarletts Lane, Tag Lane and Wargrave Hill.
Mr Chapman says Government guidance on setting speed limits was recently updated, and states: “Fear of traffic can affect people’s quality of life and the needs of vulnerable road users must be fully taken into account to encourage these modes of travel and improve their safety.”
This government guidance also notes that in 2022, 27% of all road deaths in England occurred on national speed limit rural single carriageway roads – and states that speed limits on single carriageway rural roads should take account of vulnerable road users wherever there is no footway.
Mr Chapman says the council has failed to take that into account.
“The law is an ass,” said Mr Chapman.
“Narrow lanes with no footpaths should never have been given the national speed limit and anyone with a scrap of human decency would acknowledge that legalising speeds of up to 60mph when children, dogs and other vulnerable road users are forced to use the road as their pavement proves a lack of care for residents or their quality of life.”
He claims that the number of minor accidents and near misses in these lanes has multiplied since lockdown with more people working from home and receiving deliveries throughout the day and evening.
“Families with children or dogs are frightened to go for walks, bike rides or a run,” he said, adding that there weren’t even grass verges along many lanes making it difficult for people to get out of the way of oncoming vehicles, sometimes from both directions at once.
He has lobbied Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper to change the law but was referred back to Wokingham Borough Council as they had the power to reduce speed limits locally.
“That’s a waste of time,” said Mr Chapman. “I have been asking WBC for a decade to lower the 60mph limit in Scarletts Lane which narrows to a width of 3.5m in places but they have been determined not to do so because there haven’t been enough road deaths or serious accidents and most drivers keep within the speed limit.
“They are blind to the humane argument that vulnerable road users, often with no escape route, should not have to share the carriageway in fear with vehicles travelling above 30mph.”
Mr Chapman hopes that the petition will force a change of attitude within the council and points to neighbouring councils including the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead who have been much more responsive to residents and other shared road users’ requests for a reduction in speed to 30mph where there are no footpaths.
The petition is available on Wokingham Borough Council’s website, wokingham.gov.uk, under the petitions section.
