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Published:
October 26, 2006
Anger
over location of proposed roadside speed sign in Burnham-On-Sea
Angry
Burnham-On-Sea town councillors have this week attacked plans
to introduce a speed warning sign along a quiet stretch of road
in the town as "absolutely pointless."
 Burnham-On-Sea.com
reported in May that a
speed sign is to be introduced along Marine Drive in an effort
to crack down on speeding motorists - and this week Somerset County
Council provided more details, stating that its preferred location
would be between the roundabout at Burnham Road and Highburn Close,
pictured above.
The
news was greeted with dismay from town councillors who believe
this stretch of Marine Drive does not suffer from speeding problems,
therefore making the proposed sign ineffective.
Cllr
Neville Jones said the location would be "absolutely wrong."
He added that "motorists rarely do more than 35mph along
this stretch - it needs to repositioned elsewhere."
And
Cllr Louise Parkin said the camera should be sited in the middle
of Marive Drive, near the entrance to Burnham Holiday Village,
where "speeding problems are at their worst."
She
added: "It's absolutely pointless putting a camera near the
roundabout."
Chris
Betty, the County Council's Traffic Engineer, who is in charge
of the project, said: "We may choose an alternative site
should the location identified not be practicable for whatever
reason."
It
was also confirmed that the sign would flash the actual speed
of approaching vehicles and would record the figures in an internal
database which may be passed to local police. However, no vehicle
registration numbers are to be stored.
"The
sign cannot be used in any way to assist in the prosecution of
a speeding motorist," explained Mr Betty. "But of course
the actual speed data itself can be shared with the police and
this may prompt a future visit by an officer for enforcement purposes."
He
added: "The flashing and monitoring aspect of the sign has
been shown in trials to be very effective in reducing traffic
speed, and we hope that this will contribute to prompting a change
in behaviour for vehicles."
The
issue was discussed at this week's meeting of the Burnham and
Highbridge Town Improvements Committee.
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