Durham MP backs Brancepeth speed limit fight

Dec 22 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

SPEED campaigners fighting to slow cars through their village have been backed by their MP. Ellen Hendry, 81, was killed by a Suzuki jeep as she tried to cross the A690 which runs through Brancepeth, between Durham and Crook, on November 13.

Hours earlier, villagers had visited Durham County Council headquarters calling for a reduction in the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph.

Parish council chairman John Jackson had handed over a petition bearing more than 200 names, warning there would be deaths unless action was taken on the busy road, which cuts the village in two.

On January 7, Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods is to visit the scene of the accident and will meet villagers.

She said: “Although the Department for Transport (DfT) in their Circular 01/2006 has stated categorically that ‘It is Government policy that a 30mph speed limit should be the norm for villages’, Durham Highways Authority and police regard this road ‘as an arterial route to Weardale’ and have repeatedly ignored pleas for Government policy to be implemented.

“I have written to Durham County Council in the strongest possible terms in support of a reduction of the speed limit to 30 miles per hour.”

Jim Merrington, chairman of Brancepeth Community Association, said: “The 40mph limit is too fast. The number of times people have said ‘It’s going to take somebody to be killed for something to be done.’”

Durham County Council said the speed limit would now be reviewed on the road. Durham Police have agreed to look at the matter again because of community concerns, but even after the accident stressed that previous reviews of the speed limit had found no grounds to support a change. The speed limit on the road was cut from 60mph to 40mph last year.

There is no suggestion that the driver of the jeep, a man, 40, from Weardale, had been speeding.