Residents win battle for speed monitoring on their street

Alec Doyle, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents have won a battle to convince authorities to monitor speeding motorists on their street after 18 months of trying.

Linthorpe Road in Buckley is a 20mph residential zone, but motorists have habitually been exceeding the speed limit there for some time, with cars, e-scooters and e-bikes all singled out by residents as a nuisance.

One resident, Richard Shone, got in touch with the Local Democracy Reporting Service after he and Buckley Councillor Mike Peers tried and failed to get the North Wales Road Safety Partnership GoSafe to address the issue.

Despite traffic studies showing that on average cars travel more than 10mph above the speed limit and around 8am – during rush hour and when children are walking to school – some were driving at 40mph, GoSafe still said the road did not meet requirements.

Mr Shone said: “It’s not safe. Cars and e-bikes come racing up here clearly over the speed limit and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

When he reached out to GoSafe, the response was not what he hoped.

“Many of the letters and emails I sent were ignored or I was promised a response that never came which is bad enough,” said Mr Shone.

“We were eventually told the road doesn’t meet the criteria – but when we asked what that criteria was we got no answer.

“Are they waiting for someone to be seriously hurt?”

Since going public with his concerns, Mr Shone has now shown GoSafe the issues on Linthorpe Road and it has been agreed that it does meet the criteria for speed monitoring.

GoSafe has now agreed to a series of measures to make Linthorpe Road safer for pedestrians and drivers.

These include sending the Community Speed Watch team to monitor the road, sending GoSafe’s Operation Atal to carry out speed engagement and enforcement where necessary alongside North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, arranging monthly enforcement activity through GoSafe vans and the potential for a light up street sign or priority traffic islands to slow traffic.

“For GoSafe to finally acknowledge the issues we are facing here is a huge relief,” said Mr Shone. “It took a lot of persistence from myself and Cllr Peers but hopefully now the road will be safer and people will slow down.”

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