WHITEHILL town council received disappointing news this week when the county announced that it was unlikely that speed limits on the High Street would be reduced. The council wrote to HCC's traffic management group in December requesting that the 30 mph speed limit be extended from Whitehill through to Bordon, to improve road safety, especially around the Chalet Hill Junction. But the response from the county council's traffic engineer left the council members disheartened. "As you are aware, speed limits are an invaluable road safety measure but, for them to be effective, they must be used with great care and restricted to sites where the majority of drivers will respect them," said Simon Nightingale, HCC's traffic management group engineer. He continued: "The police have given their support for the current proposal because they are concerned over the high number of casualty accidents on that particular stretch of road. "They are also prepared to enforce this section more regularly than they would otherwise, had the new speed limit been self-enforcing, in order to achieve compliance. "Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that they would support the extension of the speed limit that you are proposing because the road character and immediate environment do not make it clear as to why the road is being restricted and it will most probably be ignored by motorists. "Inappropriate speed limits not only fail to produce the anticipated local safety benefits but also tend to bring speed limits as a whole into disrepute." Mr Nightingale added that because safety measures had been installed by the county recently there were no plans to make any more adjustments at the moment. "I have checked with safety engineering, who recently installed a number of safety measures at the junction, and it is agreed that, as those works are relatively new, no further works are planned for the near future as it is too early to evaluate their effectiveness. "I am sorry that this response may be somewhat disappointing, but I hope you can appreciate the reason for it." After reading the letter, a council spokesperson commented: "We made quite a forceful case for reducing the speed limits, but, obviously, the county council is not impressed by it. "It has made some safety improvements, but we are saying we know it's a nasty turn at the Chalet Hill Junction, and if we bring the 30 mph limit further along the road, it would help to improve safety in the area." Whitehill Town Council will now write to Chris Lock of Hampshire Traffic Police to see if anything can be done. In the meantime, because of a number of accidents around the Chalet Hill junction, the county council has put up new road signage. The hope was that people travelling northbound would only use the right hand lane to turn right, rather than over taking as was previously the case. Although, on the whole, road users have been adhering to the new instructions, some are still ignoring them, putting themselves and others at risk.
