DEVON County Council has promised action to encourage drivers to slow down at a ‘deadly spot’ on the B3215 at Sampford Courtenay after receiving a petition calling for a speed limit.

The county council highways department revealed on Tuesday (November 5) that it is considering signage warning of bends on the dangerous stretch of the road between Sampford Courtenay Station and The Countryman pub.

A highways officer told the West Devon Highways and Traffic Orders Committee (HATOC) at the West Devon Borough Council offices in Tavistock that the review was in progress.

This was news, however, to county councillor James McInnes, who recently presented a petition from residents calling for a 30mph limit on this stretch of road.

Cllr McInnes said: ‘I would ask Highways to consult with the parish council and myself in terms of the road signage issues that are in the process of being addressed so that we are fully consulted, and a future report to come through to HATOC to see whether the signs had had any effect because this is not an issue that is going to go away. If it doesn’t work, we will be asking again for a speed limit.’

He also asked the highways department to monitor traffic speeds again for the whole of the contentious mile, rather than just beside the railway bridge at Belstone Corner which had previously only recorded traffic doing 40mph. Residents living beside the road had put the speed at as much as 70mph.

Cllr McInnes had put the issue on the agenda at Tuesday’s HATOC meeting to flag up the residents’ petition calling for the road’s speed limit to be reduced from 60mph to 30mph in a stretch either side of Sampford Courtenay station.

The petition was started by Kim Allsebrook, a resident of The Beeches, a community of residents mainly aged over 60, who says residents were taking their life in their hands pulling out into speeding traffic. As well as the petition, Mrs Allsebrook had video footage of a four-car crash.

The meeting on Tuesday heard Sampford Courtenay Parish Council had been compiling a dossier of near misses on the road.

Cllr Jan Goffey, town councillor for Okehampton, asked for signs on each side of the railway bridge at Belstone Corner. ‘There isn’t any signage on either side of the bridge so people who don’t know the area don’t know the bridge is there at that point.’

Cllr McInnes said: ‘As the local member I know this road very well, especially Belstone Corner which is a deadly spot. Then we have got The Beeches which has 39 households and there are also a number of businesses that have grown up along the road over the years. If there was that amount going on within a small town then there would be a 30mph speed limit. In my view 30mph isn’t realistic but I want to ask for 40mph.

‘I feel it is important that HATOC doesn’t just leave this in the background. This is something that is a long-term aspiration for the community.

‘I have been county councillor since 2005 and there have been two occasions where we have looked at the speed limit and I have gone along with the Highways’ advice that because no one has been killed there isn’t a need to lower the limit. I think, though, that we need to look at it again.’

Cllr Michelle Wilson, also at the meeting, said the issue had been raised repeatedly at parish meetings. ‘The parish council would like to see this speed limit reduced to 40mph, I think that is reasonable, so we can ensure the safety on this road for the residents,’ she said.