Residents are  angry at speeding drivers in Poundbury after a recent survey found a large number of drivers to be breaking the legal speed limit on a busy road near a school.

Campaigners from Twenty is Plenty are calling for 20 miles per hour speed zones to come into effect on all 107 roads in the area.  

Following the results of a speed survey with the aim of reducing the speed limit to 20mph on Peverell Avenue East opposite the road to Damer’s First School, 421 vehicles were recorded at a speed greater than 40mph.

Dorset Echo:

According to the researchers, one vehicle was ‘off the scale,’ driving faster than 55mph.

Rob Hattersley, Chair of the Poundbury Residents Association and former chair of charity Safewise warned: “Someone will die on this road at some point.”

The 85 percentile figure used by the council to define an expected speed was found to be over the speed limit of 30mph on Peverell Avenue East.

Campaigners say the council can not enforce a 20mph zone as the average level of speed on the road is too high to enforce a change to the limit.

“It’s a ridiculous situation that it’s too high for a 20 zone, especially outside a school,” Mr Hattersley said.

According to campaigners, the policy of Dorset Council is that speed limits need to be self-policed before traffic calming measures can be introduced on the street.

Mr Hattersley described mornings on the road as ‘absolute chaos.’

“My view is that it should be a 20mph. If you’re hit at 30mph, you have a 20 per cent chance of death, whereas if you’re hit at 20, you’re down to a 2.5 per cent chance of dying,” he said.

The chair went on to suggest that speeding on the road could be more prevalent as there are no signs on the road indicating the speed limit, as well as there being no parking restrictions in Poundbury.

Mr Hattersley said: “Every residential street in Poundbury should be 20, to make it safe for the child’s whole journey to school.”

One local resident said: “It’s generally fine, but there are a few young kids with their BMWs speeding down here like it’s a racetrack. During school times I just want to see people be careful.”

Another said: “Middle Farm Way runs parallel to this and they have a 30mph sign there. Here there is a major thoroughfare, a church, elderly residents, and school where twice a day children cross a busy road, and yet a 30mph is not adhered to and I can’t understand why.

“I'm cross. I take an early morning walk and see people going 50mph to 60mph is ridiculous.

"Everyone’s in a hurry’ these days."

Another resident said: “A really high amount of cars speeding around 100m away from a school seems crazy. I’ve only been living here a year, and I love it, but you do notice the speed at all times of day. I’d love to see traffic calming measures introduced here.”

Dorset Council Cllr for Poundbury, Richard Biggs, called the situation ‘concerning’ and said the council’s policy needs ‘adjusting.’

He said: “The results are no surprise to me or the residents of Peverell Avenue East.

“It’s a concern, I know there are traffic calming measures by the Queen Mother Square but on from there it’s just a long, straight road that residents reverse out of.”

Cllr Biggs went on to say that he would like to see a 20mph speed limit but the rest of Poundbury, due to the way it is designed with its narrow, winding roads, allows for speed to be self-enforced and that only Peverell Avenue East has seen the problems.

He said there could be two separate speed limits in place for both parts of Peverell Avenue, with 30mph between the Queen Mother Square and Monkeys Jump Roundabout, and 20mph on Peverell Avenue East down to the Great Field.  

Dorset Council and landowners the Duchy of Cornwall have been approached for comment.