‘If there was a speed camera on this road, it would make a fortune!’ Villagers want speed limit reduced on ‘nightmare’ Wragby road

Motorists travelling to the Lincolnshire coast flout the speed limit in a small market town, worried residents say.

The 40mph stretch of Horncastle Road in Wragby was previously surrounded by open fields, but is now heavily populated as the town has expanded.

Residents want Wragby’s 30mph limit extended further, saying the current limit is constantly flouted and a serious accident is only a matter of time.

Lincolnshire County Council says it has received a request for a review of the speed limits, which will need to be reviewed against its policies.

Rhonda Ledger, who has lived on the road for three years, say she can feel her house shake as traffic flies past.

“This road is a nightmare. You can hear them racing past at well over 50mph,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“It shakes the house. I sit in the front room listening for it, waiting to hear a bang.

“In the three years I’ve been here, it’s gotten worse and worse. Someone’s going to have a bad accident.

“The Bank Holiday was horrendous with everyone coming back from Skegness. It was so difficult to turn into my drive because the fast-traffic was non-stop.

“When I’m walking, I’ll motion to people to slow down if they’re going too fast, but they usually just swear at me.”

She says it’s ‘frightening’ to try to watch children cross the road, as the nearest pedestrian crossing is in the 30mph zone.

Residents are particularly concerned as construction is underway on around 270 new homes, bringing even more people and vehicles to the busy stretch of road.

They’re keen to explore any way to slow down the road, including speed bumps, mini-roundabouts or chicanes.

Coun Ruchira Yarsley (Ind), who represents the area on East Lindsey District Council, said the nearby village of Baumber has ‘very strict traffic controls because there was a serious accident there a few years ago – no one speeds through there’.

“We want the same enforcement here, but we don’t want to wait for an accident to happen.”

She added: “It’s not just boy racers. It’s everybody – mums, people on the way to work, construction workers, everybody who gets behind a wheel.

“If there was a speed camera on this road, it would make a fortune.”

Twelve letters from residents concerned about drivers’ speed on the road have been seen.

Ben Wilson said an overtaking car had nearly crashed into him as he turned into his drive, and ‘houses shake when lorries speed past’.

David Spendlove said: “We have two young children who love to ride their bikes, but we cannot let them along this road as it’s just too dangerous with the amount of speeding traffic.”

The Department for Transport’s criteria for speed cameras state they should only be used in areas where there are speed-related injuries or casualties, and where the current limit is often ignored.

Speed surveys are carried out by Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership.