Clwyd West AM Darren Millar is supporting a campaign for traffic calming measures in a Denbighshire Village and has written to the Transport Minister urging him to take action to address the issue.
Darren, who has long been concerned about the speed of traffic on the A494 and has raised the issue numerous times in the Welsh Parliament and directly with the Transport Minister, has made fresh calls for traffic calming measures after being presented with new evidence further highlighting the problems speeding traffic is causing in the village of Llanbedr DC.
Concerned that the speed limit of 30mph through the village is consistently ignored, last April Llanbedr Community Council set up a Community Speed Watch Group, with the help of North Wales Police volunteer, John Morris, to monitor speeds of vehicles using speed detection devices.
Darren was recently presented with their findings and has described them as “alarming”. He has since sent them to Transport Minister, Ken Skates AM, urging him to take action to address the issue.
His Letter to the Minister states:
“As you will know from previous correspondence with the Welsh Government, I share the concerns expressed by Cllr Gruff Jones and others in the community regarding the speed of traffic on the A494 Trunk Road. The data in the presentation in relation to speeding through the village is alarming and I would therefore be grateful if you could arrange for your officials to urgently investigate the feasibility of further action to address the problem”.
Darren added:
“I agree entirely with Llanbedr Community Council that the speed of traffic travelling through the village is totally unacceptable and traffic calming measures are needed as a matter of urgency.
“A community questionnaire conducted in 2017 identified speeding as one of the main issues in the village, yet three years on residents are no closer to getting this issue resolved.
“The lack of action to address local safety concerns is putting the lives of pedestrians and drivers at risk and measures are desperately needed before somebody is seriously injured or killed.”
Gruff Jones, a Community Councillor for Llanbedr D.C Community Council and also a resident in the village, said:
“We have been in discussions with North Wales Police and Go Safe Wales, however, real action to tackle the issue has been limited. We set up a Community Speed Watch team in April last year to essentially prove there was an issue through data gathering, and also to show drivers we were taking action.
“The Community Speed Watch team in Llanbedr DC have proven using data gathered from 18 hours of roadside monitoring that there is a huge problem in the village.
“Ideally we would like to see an average speed camera installed covering the full length of the A494 within the 30mph zone, as the speed watch experience proves that drivers slow down and then speed up again for ordinary speed cameras.
“I would like to thank Darren for his support and hope his letter to the Transport Minister will result in positive action to address this issue.”