RESIDENTS of Newtown want traffic calming measures on the road up to the White Horse to stop ‘boy racers’ hitting speeds of over 80mph.
Mark Harraway, who lives at one of the last houses leading up to the White Horse, and his neighbours, say that it is only a matter of time before someone is killed following the ‘ridiculous’ behaviour of car drivers along the road.
Mark wrote to local MP, Andrew Murrison, and also appeared at a meeting of the highways, planning and development committee at Westbury Town Council to raise the issue.
At the meeting he said, “It is absolutely ridiculous the amount of vehicles that travel up to the White Horse at speed. I don’t want this to be a whinge from just some resident, but it is only a matter of time before someone gets killed.
“I don’t want to stereotype, but around 8/9pm at night the road is full of boy racers heading up to the White Horse. One night I counted 42 cars and 12 motorbikes, all of which were travelling in excess of 60mph.
“You can’t stop the traffic as it is a public road, but all the time I have lived in the area, which is three years, I have not seen one police car up there.
“Surprisingly, it must be common knowledge that it is a popular place for teenagers to hang out at night time. I’m not just talking one or two, you go up there at 10pm and the car park is rammed and it seems a bit ‘out of town, out of mind’ that the police would rather keep them up there so they are not in the town centre.
“The cars use the 60mph speed limit sign next to number 69 Newtown as a target. As soon as they see that 60 sign, they speed up even though they have 10 or so houses to go past first. It is only a matter of time before someone is killed.”
Residents from Newtown were also present at the meeting and said, “We have lived at number 69 for 20 years. I think the issue is that the volume of traffic is significantly greater, the volume of non-vehicular; people walking their dogs, walking, running, horse-riding has also increased and that is great, it’s great to have a vibrant area, but the point is the review of the speed on the road has not been done, as far as I’m aware, in those 20 years.
“Mark is right, imminently there is going to be a horse sitting on a car bonnet with some serious injuries, particularly as there seems to be this thing at the moment with youngsters treating the 60mph sign as a target speed and basically trying to do a hill climb, trying to hit 60mph at the sign and go even faster thereafter.
“The unfortunate thing is that the horse riding centre is after there and it really is just a matter of time before an accident.”
Cllr Mike Sutton said, “I suggest this matter goes to CATG (community area transport group) and when it does, we don’t just want to talk about signage, that won’t do. It is clear that they are just an incentive for these cars to use as a way of going faster. We should ask them to consider traffic calming measures. We need cars to actually stop, as that is the only way I think will control it.”
Westbury Town Council also agreed to write to the local policing team, to make them aware of the issue, ready for them to report any ideas at the next full town council meeting and suggested a metro count to take place at the site.
