Accident ‘waiting to happen’ on busy Market Drayton road
A "fatal or serious accident" is only a matter of time on a dangerous stretch of road in Market Drayton because of speeding motorists, residents have warned.
David and Ian Palmer-Wicks have teamed up with Robert and Janet Mellor to raise their concerns about the stretch of Newcastle Road between the junction with the A53 and the Grove School.
They have written an open letter to Market Drayton and District Road Safety Group. They said a number of factors, including a lack of traffic-calming measures, may combine one day to cause a serious accident on the section of road, which makes up a 30mph speed limit zone.
The letter says: “There is nothing to slow the traffic exiting the A53 from Loggerheads and heading towards Market Drayton. It appears that many drivers use the road past Hillcrest, Millfield Drive and Sambrook Crescent as an extension to the bypass.
"This stretch of road is subject to excessive speeding by a good proportion of motorists. No other entrance to Market Drayton has so few disincentives to speed. Other than one 30mph traffic sign at the A53 end there are no traffic calming measures on this stretch.”
Mr Mellor referred to a check carried out by the community speed watch group three years ago which identified one car travelling through the 30mph zone at 86.5mph, despite a vehicle activated sign which flashes the speed of passing vehicles.
The letter identifies a number of other danger factors including new housing developments and the upcoming redevelopment of the Talbot Inn increasing the footfall and traffic in the area, the narrowness of the road as it reaches a bridge over a canal, and a bus route that also uses the road.
In conclusion, the letter says: “We appreciate that speeding in Market Drayton is not limited to just this zone and that speed is a widespread problem in the town.
“However, this zone does attract a very high proportion of drivers travelling considerably in excess of the 30mph limit yet there appears to be nothing in place to lower the risk of accident along this stretch. We accept that individually many of the issues highlighted above may not result in accidents but we believe there are so many factors in play on this stretch of road, and our view is that at some point a combination of the above issues will occur and a fatal or serious accident will be the result.”
About 100 copies of the letter have been distributed among Newcastle Road residents, with plans for more.
Mr Palmer-Wicks said: “We live at Hillcrest and near our house we can see the vehicle activated sign on Newcastle Road. We recently saw a number of cars doing 40, 50 miles an hour.
“We have already had some good feedback to the letters, we are hoping to collate the responses we do get and then take them to the relevant people to show that a lot of people are behind this.
“Even some small traffic calming measures would help. Prevention is better than the cure.”
Shropshire councillor Roy Aldcroft vowed that he would to take the issue to the authority and also meet with the area’s traffic engineer to “see what could be done”.
