Schools 20mph zones list soon to be revealed (From Worcester News)

Schools 20mph zones list soon to be revealed

3:00pm Monday 19th April 2010

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THE ORDER in which roads outside Worcestershire schools will be made into 20mph zones will be revealed in a few weeks’ time.

The final list – which will prioritise which school will get the lower speed limit first – will be revealed by Worcestershire County Council, which aims to eventually introduce 20mph limits outside all schools.

It follows years of reports and investigations, as well as repeated calls for 20mph zones by parents and residents across the county.

One such group which desperately wants to see a lower limit on its road are the residents of Timberdine Avenue – home to both Cherry Orchard Primary School and Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College.

Paul Snookes, a university lecturer who lives on the road, said: “Five residents here in Timberdine Avenue knocked on every door in our street and asked people if they supported our campaign to have the speed limit reduced to 20mph, as is the case in the Battenhall Road area. Almost all of those surveyed – which equates to 91 per cent of all households in Timberdine Avenue – agree that there is a problem with excessive vehicle speeds in the street and are in favour of the speed limit being reduced.”

Numerous meetings and calls with John Cairns, the county councillor for St Peter’s, Worcester, resulted in a meeting at the end of March, where he indicated their road would be high on the list.

“There are lots of requests for this sort of thing right across the county,” said Coun Cairns. “All the requests have to go into the melting pot. We cannot do every street straight away. With Timberdine Avenue, and with the fact that there are two schools and a residential home on it, I have been given to understand it will be fairly high up on the list. Having said that, it does not mean it will happen.”

A spokesman for Worcestershire County Council said: “Our monitoring work relating to speed limits outside schools is now complete and final checks are being made to ensure the findings are translated to pursue the best possible use of resources to improve on our already high standards of road safety around schools.

“We are hopeful that this work will be completed in the next few weeks and we can begin to integrate it into our road safety work across the county.”

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