I attended the Speed Reduction Panel meeting via Teams today. I have yet to get the official decision but I am not optimistic it will be positive outcome, to reduce the limit from 60mph.
The Panel advised that they had looked at collision data and there were no fatal or serious injury collisions in the past few years. They do not record minor incidents.
They were very against 30mph as the police rep stated it could never be enforced and would be ignored. They place a lot of weight on the view that people drive appropriately to the conditions and surroundings, which may be true for these types but may not hold in the general population.
The panel advised that the average speed, in the 85th percentile (that they use) along the road was 40mph, I thought they may consider a 40mph but their view was that it was rather pointless putting a speed limit that they argued was the speed observed by the vast majority of the road users.
They finally were concerned about precedents, if they allowed this how would it been seen in other places. This country road was similar to many across the county, etc. In essence if we do the right thing here we will have to do the right thing everywhere.
I did point out that the speed of locals and residents was probably sensible. Our concerns were non local traffic, those who cut through following a sat nav, the car boot users etc. A lower limit with more signage would encourage and remind those not familiar with it to keep their speed down. In reply to their precedent line I pointed out that the Stratford Rd (Cosgrove village to A508) is 40mph, it has two car width lanes with a white line, is a lot straighter than the Moorend Rd with no right angle bends.
They concluded by saying their decision would be in private. I left the call.
I am not in anyway hopeful that we will see any change to the speed limit.