Traffic Management

I am sure that the traffic passing through Spaldwick has reduced somewhat since the A14 has bypassed the village. However anyone walking on foot through the village will become very much aware that not all cars adhere to the 30MPH maximum speed restriction, this is especially obvious to anyone with a small child or who are not too steady on their feet.

Although if you look at the numbers, the actual numbers of cars passing through the village is quite small, however it is generally concentrated to two periods of time,  first thing in the morning and late afternoon/early evening.

We have previously paid nearly £1000 for a traffic survey to be carried out in the hope that this would facilitate some sort of speed reduction within the village. Unfortunately this just showed that we were quite low down on the list of priorities in comparison to other villages.

There are three main areas where speeding is encountered;

Highstreet at the garage end coming from the A14 – Cars here are transitioning from the 70 MPH limit of the A14 down the off slip and are easing off as they enter the 30MPH restriction. Sometimes only slowing down as the approach the right hand bend. By the time they get to here they have passed many houses and potentially children and pedestrians on the footpaths. I for one do not allow my children to cross the highstreet until they get into the centre of the village as children do not tend to have a very good speed perception.

Stow Road (heading from and to Stow Longa) – Cars enter here from the 60MPH zone and easy off until they slow down for the right hand bend. Leaving the village towards Stow Longa the cars accelerate before the get to the national speed limit sign despite there being houses and potentially children in this area.

Thrapston Road – Cars here are either accelerating out of the village or accelerating into the village, before slowing down for the right hand bend.

So, what can we do?

Driving around the county there are a lot of villages that use a whole plethora of speed reduction methods, some are more effective than others, most have speed watch (as do we). Others have cameras, speed humps, give way signs, give way areas etc.

We have a small working group that will be looking to investigate options later this year, so if you would like to be a part of that and can spare the odd hour every now and again for a drink, a chat and pushing forward for a solution then please let me know.

Jason Pope