Some residents of Whitworth Crescent, Whitworth Road, Harcourt Road and Macnaghten Road are calling on the council to introduce 20 mile an hour speed limits because “resident and pedestrian safety, especially for children is at risk”.
• Bid for 20mph limits on three more Bitterne Park roads
• Call for 20mph zone on another local road
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Doug Innes, who’s initiated the move, said the council has “a small budget to make some residential roads twenty miles per hour, so there’s an appetite there to make it happen.”
Speaking particularly about Whitworth Crescent where he lives, he said: “We do get people coming down there way over thirty, which to be blunt is a danger to my kids, pets, and everyone else’s family.
“Now I do realise that putting a sign up that says twenty doesn’t necessarily stop everyone, but it hopefully makes people slow down a bit, make them think, and make the road safer.
“And I guess second to that, we are slightly a bit of a rat run sometimes, and I realise rat runs are probably because the traffic’s got to go somewhere – you can’t just push it on to other roads – but we get commuters coming down there sometimes in the morning well over thirty, and you’d hate to see a youngster step out and get hit at forty by some idiot.”
Whitworth Crescent
He said there had been a number of incidents where parked cars had been hit.
“The frequency of it among my neighbours and I tells you that, you know, one day that’s going to be a child that gets hit … rather than just the wing mirror being smashed off.”
He said the idea was initially discussed on a residents’ WhatsApp group, where no one said they were against it, so he set up an online petition, specifically for residents of those roads, on Southampton City Council’s website. At the time of writing 37 people have signed.
“I can’t really see a downside,” said Doug, who has support from one Bitterne Park ward councillor, Cllr Ivan White (Con), and hopes the other two will also back it.
Harcourt Road
Cllr White told bitternepark.info he thought it’s a good place to do it, because it’s a “contained area” where “it’s quite easy to put two or three signs up and produce quite a nice 20 mph zone”.
“I think it’s eminently sensible,” he said.
“By and large” he would support similar requests, he added, “where it’s practical and easy to do”, but he said it depended on the nature of the area.
When asked whether he thought people would respect the speed limit if introduced, he said he hoped in the fullness of time they will do.
As reported, SCC has recently introduced a new process enabling communities to request 20mph speed limits in their local neighbourhoods
Macnaghten Road
Whitworth Road
The e-petition is due to be discussed at Southampton City Council's full council meeting on November 17 from 4pm.