Speed limit signage in Whittington has had to be taken down after concerns were raised by the highways authority.
The 20mph warnings had been put up by Whittington and Fisherwick Parish Council over concerns about speeding in the area.
But the signs have been removed after highways chiefs at Staffordshire County Council confirmed they had not been authorised.
Cllr David Williams, cabinet member for highways and transport, said:
“Safety on our roads is a priority to us and our parish councils are invaluable partners in alerting us to local concerns.
“We are working with Whittington and Fisherwick Parish Council to address these.
“As the highways authority we do have a duty to ensure there are only authorised signs on our roads.
“We’re now looking at exploring other road safety measures with the parish council.”
Cllr David Williams, Staffordshire County Council
A spokesperson for Whittington and Fisherwick Parish Council told Lichfield Live councillors had decided to put the signs up after “unanimously” agreeing that traffic was moving too quickly through Whittington.
“There have been numerous crashes at the Dog crossroads for example fortunately without any fatalities so far – we want to make that there are no fatalities in the future.
“There is a ’20 is Plenty’ campaign in Staffordshire, which the county council seems to be ignoring, despite many other local authorities taking on board the need to encourage traffic to slow down.”
Whittington and Fisherwick Parish Council spokesperson
“We will try other means”
The signs were taken down after residents flagged them to the county council.
But the parish council said they would not be deterred in trying to slow down traffic through the area.
“The 20mph signs that the parish council put up were well received but the one or two complaints made to Staffordshire County Council seem to have taken precedence.
“In the meantime we will try other means which may entail using 20mph bin stickers, or Speedwatch volunteers.
“Speeding traffic isn’t the only complaint that the Parish Council has made to Staffordshire County Council. The amount of discarded road work signs that are left throughout Whittington and Fisherwick is we believe also a danger to traffic and pedestrians alike.
“A number of times we have complained about the signs propped up along the wall between Fisherwick and Elford for example, but this too has fallen on deaf ears.”
Whittington and Fisherwick Parish Council spokesperson
Just proves my point, schemes like million pounds being spent on road in Lichfield, don’t know who as asked for it, you get, but a scheme people want you can’t have, even do away with it
We have witnessed the death of common sense….
SCC spokesperson: ‘safety on our roads is priority’.
SCC actions: take down road signs that indicate a slow safe speed is needed on busy narrow lanes.
Beggars belief. It really does. Have our roads ever been in a worse state than they are now?
Taking down unauthorised road signs is not the death of common sense, it’s entirely sensible and inevitable. The fault lies with those who put the signs up for doing something stupid, however well intentioned. Make the case for a 20mph limit via the appropriate channel and get it implemented properly.
I can’t actually believe that local residents reported the signs to the council…what a sad reflection on society….
Fyi un prescribed speed limit signs invalidate speed limits so the parish were essentially preventing the police doing people for speeding
Parish could have just asked the highway authority but thought they knew better so what did they expect
Having worked in traffic management for years I know that a wrongly placed unauthorised sign whilst it may seem its doing good can cause more harm and risk endangering other road users. Near us someone installed unofficial 40 signs on their house on a national road – it was lethal because you had cars braking for the 40 seeing the unofficial signs and cars behind them doing 60 not expecting the car in front to brake so rapidly for no reason. The guy was forced to remove the 40 signs and replaced them with a fake speed camera again causing issues with cars braking rapidly (now assuming it’s a 40 even though the unofficial signs have been replaced). Slowing speed down doesn’t always make roads safer, the safest road I found to travel on was the German autobahn – even though it has no speed limits in sections – everyone is traveling at a speed they feel comfortable at, and more importantly keeping their eyes on the road rather than the speedo.
If some of the selfish boneheads who seem to have a death wish when they unfortunately get behind the wheel of a vehicle would just think of others for a change there would be no need to state the obvious, ie, do not speed through a village lane where there is potential for a an accident or death.
“it was lethal because you had cars braking for the 40 seeing the unofficial signs and cars behind them doing 60 not expecting the car in front to brake so rapidly for no reason”
So it was a problem because some people are bad drivers, unable to cope if a vehicle in front of them brakes suddenly and unexpectedly, perhaps because they drive far too close to the vehicle in front or are incapable of paying sufficient attention to what’s happening.
“more importantly keeping their eyes on the road rather than the speed”
People who cannot pay attention both to what’s happening on the road and to their speed should either stop driving or take refresher lessons because they’re a danger to others.
I largely agree with Darren, but his last comment about the German Autobahn being the safest road is simply not accurate. A quick google brought up this:
“Research by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) in 2019 suggested that the German autobahn network was the 10th safest in Europe with a risk of death around twice as high as on motorways in the UK.”
So you are twice as safe on a UK motorway than on a German Autobahn. My experience is that they have very short slip roads and cars going at very high speeds on the inside lane, so it’s very hard/scary to even get onto the Autobahn. UK motorways have longer slip roads and the vehicles on the inside lane tend to be going at less than 70 mph (unless there’s very little traffic), which I think is one reason why they’re actually much safer.
Well, regardless of whether you believe in them being needed or not, we can’t have a system whereby local councils can just erect road signs that they deem suitable. That can only lead to confusion and legal problems. For example, are vehicles travelling at 30mph through Whittington breaking the law? And if so, what law?
I’d love to know what the people who “disliked” my comment about Germany’s Autobahn actually disliked about it.
Having driven on both, anyone who thinks the autobahn safer that UK is crazy. Carl Scholl is spot on.
When will people get the understanding that it’s not speed that’s the problem, it’s inappropriate speed and bad driving that’s the problem! I’ve done over 150mph on closed circuits loads of times and guess what, it’s never killed or hurt me.
Do gooders have decided that speeding an easy cash target and instead of targeting and prosecuting bad driving. We class everything as an “accident”. Guess what, most aren’t an accident! Turn your radio off, stop smoking, drinking, eating. Focus and concentrate on the road ahead and we’d all be amazed how much safer our roads would be.
Accidents happen, but speed kills.