People living on the busy A390 at St Ann’s Chapel are being asked to give their views on how £250,000 of public money should be spent to tackle speeding traffic past their front doors.
Cornwall Council’s highways contractor Cormac finally has money to solve issues on the main road. Proposals include a fixed speed camera, speed signs and pedestrian crossings.
The council is holding a consultation on different proposals to improve safety on this stretch of the busy road, which has seen many new homes built in recent years.
Cllr Dorothy Kirk, Cornwall councillor for Calstock and councillor for Gunnislake ward on Calstock Parish Council, said: ‘Basically we are trying to make things safer for everyone at St Ann’s Chapel. It isn’t just the speed that is the problem. It is crossing the road, people trying to go about their daily lives.’
In total, Cormac are putting forward nine proposals to alleviate traffic problems at St Ann’s Chapel, where housing is on one side of the busy road and the local primary school and other facilities are on the other side.
These are a speed limit amendment, bus stop posts and flags, St Ann’s Chapel village entrance road signs, a fixed speed camera and pedestrian refuge (island in the middle of the road opposite Buzzard Rise, a junction amendment near Delaware Learning Centre, crossing improvements outside Delaware Primary Academy, footway amendments on Sand Hill and a speed limit change on Sand Hill.
Comments are being being invited by to an online consultation by November 26.
Cllr Kirk, who is a long-time campaigner on safety issues on the A390, said: ‘We are looking at extending the 40mph limit because we have got the two caravan sites now off that road.’ She said the proposal would see a variable speed limit up Sand Hill, the steep main road through Gunnislake. ‘This will go from 30 to 40 by the railway but back to 30mph near Alma Terrace,’ she said.
Another proposal will see a new pavement on part of the steep climb up towards St Ann’s Chapel from Gunnislake. ‘By Sandhill House they have dropped the pavement because the pavement is too narrow for a pushchair so you have to go into the road,’ said Cllr Kirk ‘I think pushing a pushchair or pushing a wheelchair on that road is really not on.’
The proposals are aimed at making traffic observe the speed limit. The St Ann’s Chapel village sign is aimed at making drivers more aware that they are entering an area where people live. ‘Those signs are about making people aware that they are entering a community. It is about making life better for the people who live here,’ said Cllr Kirk. ‘We have got the funding, about £250,000, so we want to make sure we spend it to solve some of our problems.’
She said she had been worried that the money might get taken away as cuts are looming at Cornwall Council, but she had been assured that the money was safe.
‘It is safeguarding it,’ she said. ‘It is important with coming cuts that we get this spent in the best possible way for the community. We have got it, we need to spend it, because with the cuts that are coming we can’t risk losing it.’
To comment online, see ‘St Ann’s Chapel and Drakewalls, Pedestraian & Safety Improvement’ at www.cornwall.gov.uk/TrafficConsult before November 26.
You can also view site notices at locations where the changes are being proposed at St Ann’s Chapel and Drakewalls. The plans can also be viewed at County Hall in Truro.