Speed limit campaigners meet MP at death road

Jan 8 2009 by Chris Robinson, The Journal

CONCERNED residents fighting to have a speed limit on a busy stretch of road reduced met their MP yesterday.

A campaign has been launched following the death of grandmother Ellen Hendry, 81, after she was killed as she tried to cross the A690 which runs through Brancepeth, between Durham and Crook.

Mrs Hendry, was killed on November 13, just hours after villagers visited Durham County Council headquarters calling for a reduction in the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph.

A petition bearing more than 200 names was handed in warning there would be deaths unless action was taken on the busy road, which cuts the village in two.

Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods met with campaigners yesterday.

When cameras filmed the group crossing the road, traffic began to slow down.

But before the MP arrived a number of vehicles were spotted speeding along the road by our reporter and photographer.

Ms Blackman-Woods, who supports the speed limit change, said: “I have no idea why the county council is being so resistant to it.

“Crucially, if someone is knocked down at 40mph the chances of survival are much less than 30mph.”

Resident Lisette Tindale, 48, said she was worried about the safety of her children crossing the road.

The mother of five, who has lived in Brancepeth for more than two decades, said: “You just can’t let your children out on their own, even when they become teenagers you can’t help but watch them.

“There are elderly people having to cross the road to get to facilities on the other side.”

Dave Wafer, Durham County Council’s acting head of highway management, said the Government’s policy relating to speed limits through villages did not relate to Brancepeth because it did not meet the Department for Transport’s criteria for classification as a village.

He added that guidelines on speed limits on principal roads such as the A690 suggested they should relate more realistically to the average speed of existing traffic.

“The only thing under consider- ation is whether to lower the limit to 30 or keep it at 40.

“In coming to a view, we shall take everything into account, including the results of our speed survey, all the relevant Government guidelines and the concerns of the local residents.”

There is no suggestion that the driver of the vehicle which killed Mrs Hendry had been speeding.