Campaigners call for Hop Pole speed limit to be lowered
Campaigners are calling for the speed limit on a busy village road to be lowered – saying the dangers it brings are having a knock-on effect to the community.
Hop Pole residents say the nature of the straight A1175 encourages motorists to exceed the 50mph limit, making it dangerous for children to cross roads and locals to pull out of their drives.
With the backing of Deeping St Nicholas Parish Council, 10 campaigners recently underwent community speedwatch training, only to discover they were unable to clock the speeds of passing vehicles as it’s deemed too dangerous in a 50mph zone.
“On the other side of the railway crossing they have reduced the speed limit from 30mph to 40mph at Deeping St Nicholas, while keeping our speed limit at 50mph,” said campaigner Catherine Walden.
“It’s quite dangerous coming out of our drives onto the 50mph road, there have been lots of incidents of people pulling out their drives and someone speeding up behind them.
“There’s very little enforcement of the existing speed limit. Because it’s a long, straight road there are motorcycles that are absolutely bombing down here.
“if we’re slowing down to turn into our drives people will overtake and you have to be vigilant you’re not turning into someone speeding past.
“Anecdotally residents were saying that because of the number of lorries coming down here, despite the bypass, it’s damaging their houses.”
Another concern for Catherine, who has nine-year-old twins, is not being able to safely access local amenities.
“Children have to go to school on the bus would need to cross the road because of paths on only one side of the road at any point,” she added.
“The pub has closed down, the community centre isn’t useable, you can’t walk to the playground. It’s damaging the community and people’s lives.
“We want it to be safe. We live in the countryside but we can’t walk down the road.”
Residents recently met with South Holland and the Deeping MP Sir John Hayes, who said he would raise their concerns.
Coun Nigel Pepper, whop represents the area on Lincolnshire County Council says attempts to lower the speed limit has his ‘full support’.
“I’m aware that Deeping St Nicholas Parish Council has submitted a request to the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership to have the maximum speed limit lowered along this stretch from 50mph to 40mph,” he said.
“Having attended many very serious road traffic collisions along this stretch in my many years of service with the Fire and Rescue Service any attempts to make the road safer have my full support.
“Also being an active supporter of Speedwatch, if the speed limit could be reduced to 40mph it would mean volunteer Speedwatch operatives would be able to record instances of speeding along the road.
“Whether or not it can be reduced is if it meets with the requirements of Lincolnshire County Council’s speed limit policy, this can take quite a while with a backlog of similar requests across the county.
“In the meantime I urge all motorists to adhere to the present speed limit and anyone witnessing speeding along the road to report to the Police, more-so if regular persistent offenders are observed.”
A county council spokesperson said: “Any request for a review of the 50mph speed limit at Hop Hole should be submitted to the local county councillor, so that it may be passed to the traffic team for consideration.
"In line with our speed limit policy, it will be the mean speed of traffic which determines if a reduced level of limit may be introduced along Littleworth Drove through the built up area."