MAY I echo David Venner?s excellent and prescient letter in last week?s paper (Concerned by traffic speed on Whitchurch Road)? In recent months speeding traffic has made this road increasingly dangerous, not simply to those who live on Whitchurch Road but also to those whose side-roads, like mine, feed onto it. Feeder roads like Chollacott Lane ? designed and laid out for gentler times ? force motorists to edge out blind into the stream of fast-moving east-west traffic before they are able to see if the road is clear. Doing so is fraught with danger. In recent months I have personally:- l Nearly collided with an unseen cyclist as I have attempted to turn right into Whitchurch Road l witnessed and heard the ?clang? as a speeding car has swerved, then shed its wing mirror on a lamp-post l been given Mussolini?s salute at least twice by ?rat-run? motorists when I?ve gestured to them to slow down l watched heart-in-mouth as children have edged out into the road to glimpse oncoming traffic before darting across the road to school. The council claims the ?average? speed is under 30mph and that therefore no change is needed. Not for the first time, they miss the point: for the average speed to be under 30mph, some traffic must be travelling well in excess of that. Any one of those cars is a potential accident on wheels. Increasingly, our concern is not that a fatal accident might happen, but that, unless there is change, a fatal accident is inevitable. It?s time Devon County Council and those who hold office in our name woke up to the peril on their own doorstep. Tom Keene Chollacott Lane Tavistock
