As you are no doubt aware, there was a fatal accident on Brookwood Lye Road in November. I’m not a fan of lowering speed limits generally, but in this case I think it needs to be reviewed. Add in what is known about the proposed development on Brookwood Lye Road and the case for a review is cast iron. In my view it will be totally unacceptable for people exiting Brookwood Lye Road developments onto a 60mph limit road. With this in mind I asked the following written public question at last night’s SCC/WBC Joint Committee. The tabled answer is also included.
Q: ‘The A324, Brookwood Lye Road, sadly had another fatal accident in early November. The speed limit at this point is 60mph. The road also suffers from heavy congestion due to the configuration of Brookwood Crossroads which is unable to cope with the volume of queuing traffic and is often backed up round the sharp bend.
A recent planning application has been submitted which will reconfigure the Traveller site, and build over 100 dwellings on the derelict garden centre site. There will be two exits on to the Brookwood Lye Road for traffic from these sites.
Please will the Highways Officers look at lowering the speed limit on this road to improve safety?
A: The re-configuration and re-development of the Traveller and garden centre sites should alter the character of Brookwood Lye Road which should, in turn, affect driver behaviour. Such situations present a good opportunity to review speed limits and it is our intention to do this for the current national (60mph) limit on Brookwood Lye Road.
The first stage of a speed limit review would be to survey existing vehicle speeds to see if a lower limit would be appropriate based on our speed limit policy. Although funding for a reduction of the speed limit has yet to be identified, the cost of the speed survey will be relatively low and it is hoped that this can be carried out early in the next financial year’.
So, all well and good, I’m happy with the response. I hope the decision is reached to lower the speed limit before many people start living there. It would be wrong to conclude it doesn’t need lowering when we know there will be many people living there and exiting on to the road in the near future.
Infrastructure first where possible, then development.
Cheers.
Kevin
Cllr Kevin Davis 