Fears over safety on narrow country roads around a West Lothian village have been raised by councillors after engineers insisted the current speed limit of 40mph was safe.
Residents have called for speeds to be reduced to at least 30mph in line with other rural areas, and councillors also questioned the reliance on a monitoring system which only recommends safety improvements after there have fatal accidents.
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Villagers in Torphichen also voiced fears about road accident deaths.
One wrote on social media: “It sounds like they are waiting for a tragedy to occur before they will pay for the changes! Yet numerous roads across WL have had their roads changed to 20mph, we seem to have been forgotten about here. There are near misses on our walks to school all the time.”
An engineer's report to West Lothian’s Council’s Environment Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel (PDSP) revealed the results of their latest survey of three sites, Cathlaw Lane, Torphichen, Slackend Cross and through the village of Westfield.
A second survey was commissioned as the first, in June last year, was done at the height of Covid restrictions.
From the latest survey at 12 sites over the three locations, the report outlined little change adding: “The recently collected data is consistent with the June 2021 data and there are no significant changes to the traffic speeds or volumes which would necessitate further investigation. There is good compliance with the existing speed limits on all three routes.”
The only way that speed reduction in Cathlaw Lane and Slackend could be introduced would be through engineering measures. Monitoring would continue to take place, the report added.
Councillor Diane Calder said: “Will we pick these roads as a priority to monitor because clearly there are issues in this area.”
Roads Manager Graeme Malcolm said monitoring would take place through regular Accident Investigation Prevention (AIP) Programme monitoring.
Councillor Calder said the issue of relying on AIP results is that action would only be taken following a fatality.
Local Labour councillor Andrew McGuire told the meeting: “To say there’s extreme unhappiness from villagers about this would be an understatement. The community council were fairly strong on their comments.
"Villagers feel that the speed limit doesn’t reflect the conditions of the road. That’s why there’s a call for 30 mph. I think the fact the Spaces for People clouds the issue and doesn’t present accurate figures. It would be my proposal that we lower the speed limit to 30mph for nine months.”
Local Independent Councillor Stuart Borrowman said on his social media page before the meeting: “Council officials have concluded: ‘It is recommended that there is no justification for the reduction of the existing 40mph speed limits on the B8047 Westfield Road, the B792 Slackend and Cathlaw Lane in Torphichen at this time. These routes will continue to be monitored through the Council’s annual Accident Investigation and Prevention programme.’”
He added: “I am surprised and disappointed at this outcome. These are routes used by schoolchildren and all have issues of road geometry of concern.”
After the meeting Councillor Borrowman added: “I think the case can still be made for these adjustments when this comes up for decision and I’ll be arguing for that.
“These are two important roads into a busy village with numbers of houses, children walking to school and very narrow or no footway.
“I think the opinion of officials is very important but this is one of these cases where elected politicians who know the local scene well should override that.”
