Shropshire road safety group seeks help for safety measures
Campaigners are calling for more support as they push for safety measures to be put in place on a notorious road.
The action group behind plans to lower the speed limit along the Sandford bend of the A41 between Whitchurch and Market Drayton is asking for more concerned motorists to come forward.
The Sandford Residents Committee, whose members live along the busy road, fear further accidents after a 53-year-old motorcyclist from Shrewsbury died in a crash with a car earlier this year.
Member Paul Beak, 66, said they hope to raise the profile of their campaign while traffic surveys are carried out in the area.
He said: "We hope to emphasise the seriousness of our problem with being bullied by the traffic, and HGVs particularly, that ploughs through our village day and night.
"We have only one main street that we must walk along to move between houses, and the pavement that does exist on only one side of the road is in places only thee feet-wide between the road and a fence.
"The people who live on the eastern side of the road have no pavement at all and even with children and a pushchair would be obliged to walk in amongst the traffic – clearly no-one would do this. Because crashes are frequent, an out-of-control vehicle has a number of times penetrated people's gardens, making them potentially unsafe.
"And the junction onto the A41 from B5065 Prees where the recent fatality occurred is impossible to negotiate safely."
Mr Beak said the campaigners were desperate to get a 30-mile-per-hour speed limit introduced and enforced but would ultimately like to see a bypass to fix the problem. He added that the idea had been looked at a number of times before but had not progressed.
He said: "We do think Sandford merits and needs a bypass as it is too difficult to improve – narrow and windy with a dangerous bridge, bend and junction in the centre."
Mr Beak said the group are also concerned about other problems the traffic causes, including vibrations and noise.
He said: "The vibration from HGVs is serious within every house; the vibrations that we all can feel inside our houses is horrible.
"The noise is genuinely stressful."
To support the group contact Mr Beak at PBeak@pdpdains.com
