Residents and firefighters beg for speed cameras on 'racetrack' Yorkshire road where Clare Turner, 24, died

Members of Rotherham Council’s overview and scrutiny committee supported a petition calling for a number of road safety measures on a road in the borough during a meeting today (May 11).

The petition submitted to RMBC calling for more safety measures on Cumwell Lane and Kingsforth Lane reached 622 signatures, and was discussed during a full council meeting on April 13.

Conservative councillors Simon Ball for Hellaby and Maltby West and Tom Collingham for Thurcroft and Wickersley South submitted the petition, which was started by Phil Owen.

A report discussed during today’s meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny management board reviewed the petition, which called for more signs, road cleaning, street lighting and speed bumps, reduced speed limit and speed cameras.

Coun Simon Ball told the meeting: “For a long time, residents have been saying that this road is unsafe.”

Coun Ball added that he had received a telephone call from a watch manager at Maltby Fire station, who had “various firefighters voicing their concerns, and asking what was being done to make the road safer.

“This shows that the whole area is concerned about this stretch of road, and demonstrates the uneasiness of even the professionals that protect us. This road is a racetrack between the villages.

“Something must be done, and indeed quickly. We’ve had eight collisions, two loss of life, four serious injuries and eight slight injuries, all in a short period of time.

“All of which would hopefully be reduced by an average speed camera system.

“We can’t say much about the loss of life incidents; it’s going to the coroner’s court, but I’ve been in touch with both families, I’ve just got to say, my condolences again, it must be so upsetting.

“We welcome the improvements to the road, but we think we could go further. I would urge this council to look at the inclusion of average speed cameras.

“This will ensure those travelling on the road will adhere to the speed limit and ultimately save lives.”

In October 2019, Clare Turner, 24, died in a collision on the road and in February this year a 30-year-old man who has not been publicly named was also killed in a crash.

Paul Woodcock, strategic director, regeneration and environment at RMBC told the meeting that new signs warning of hidden dips and the possibility of ice and regular inspections of the road have been implemented, and the legal process has begun to reduce the speed limit to 50mph.

“We are also looking at resurfacing Kingsforth Lane on the Thurcroft side, and as well as that resurfacing the new central road stubs, highway markings, verge markers, there’s already verge markers but they will be improved and replaced where needed,” added Mr Woodcock.

“Parts of the highway will have red hatched surface markings for example by the landfill site entrance, as well as two vehicle activated signs to slow down.”

Andrew Moss, interim head of transport infrastructure, planning, regeneration and transport, told the meeting that to implement average speed cameras, South Yorkshire Police would need to be involved.

“Although we haven’t got a formal commitment to supplying those cameras with the police, it’s their responsibility through the camera partnership.

“We have tried to explore ways in which they could be implemented, but there will be, and there are, certain barriers to us doing that – for instance in putting new measures in to protect people, the camera safety units have to be serviceable, and in an earlier assessment of that route show there are very few sites in which to place those average speed cameras for maintenance crews to come along and safely maintain them on a periodic basis.”

Mr Moss added that officers have undertaken an early assessment of feasibility with the safety camera partnership, and said he would expect the implimentation of average speed cameras to take one to two years.

“Bar in mind that he speed check we did in February does not reveal exessive speeds with the majority of traffic,” added Mr Moss.

Mr Woodcock added that Rotherham “does not have any average speed cameras in the whole of the borough”.