VILLAGERS have been left furious new lower speed limits on a “dangerous” road will not cover the spot outside a school where a pensioner was killed.
Road safety campaigners called for the speed limit to be reduced from 40mph to 30mph in Clacton Road, Weeley, following the death of pedestrian Ruth Smith.
The 82-year-old died after being hit on the road, outside St Andrew’s Primary School, by a speeding driver in January 2012. A Holland-on-Sea man was later jailed for six months and stripped of his licence.
Plans to cut the speed limit were stalled earlier this year following a single objection from Essex Police, which said the lower speed limit would “not be appropriate or compatible to the location”.
Peter Dumsday, vice-chairman of Weeley Parish Council, said: “Essex County Council came up with a revised plan which reduces the speed limit of many Weeley roads but does not satisfy what the parish council or the school campaigned for.
“The 30mph does not cover that stretch of the main Clacton Road past the school, so it is not covering where the children cross or where the latest fatal accident occurred.
“These current proposals include a 30mph limit for only the first 140 metres, after that it permits 60mph.”
He added that councillors are “angry at these unsatisfactory proposals”.
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