Living in a small village has many advantages such as the quiet, the sense of community among residents, the beautiful landscape and the fairly empty roads. There are also drawbacks to this, such as having reckless drivers who have no sense of safety even when there are people around them whom they endanger by driving so carelessly.

I’m eighteen and have become more aware of the rules and regulations of road laws since I passed my driving test. One issue that I’ve noticed particularly since then is the speeding cars flying along the roads. Hearing stories, and experiencing this myself, makes me fear that one day the worst may occur to these drivers, or someone affected by them. I have family in the village, including a young sister, and wonder if one day one of my loved ones may be affected by a car going far above the speed limit, with no caution in mind.

When I was doing work experience with Penny Post, one of the first things Brian and Penny told me was that they wanted me to write an article on something that interested or concerned me. Speeding in and around Compton seemed like an obvious choice.

Fortunately, Brian had written about the wider issue several times already and suggested some people I might contact. These included Comtoon Parish Council (CPC) member Linda Moss, CPC Chair Dave Aldis, and the area WBC Councillor Carolyne Culver, who all have experience with this regularly occurring speeding issue. So, on Tuesday morning, I picked up the phone and started contacting them…

While working on this story, we came to the conclusion that one week wasn’t enough time to cover this complex subject properly. So we decided to summarise the main aspects that make up the issue of speeding:

• Identifying the problem. The first thing is establishing where speeding is happening, why, and who is being affected by it. Sometime, simple things like making speed-limits signs easier to see, such as by cleaning them or cutting back vegetation, can help.
• Evidence gathering. Most cases, though need some change, so evidence-gathering will be needed. This involves work such as Community Speedwatch programmes. This is what Linda Moss is running in Compton. The problem is often the lack of volunteers to attend to the speed indicator device (SID), with the addition that their machine is shared with the neighbouring village of East Ilsley. My talk with Linda Moss made me aware of the effort involved in running such a scheme to record enough data.
• Solutions. Talking to all the people about this made me aware that there are many speed-reduction options which have their pros and cons. For example, speed bumps force drivers to slow down and work well in residential areas such as Compton, though they can be noisy and affect emergency vehicles. Speed cameras are less intrusive and can be more impactful than a speed limit sign, but need maintenance: they’re also expensive; as are chicanes. Rumble strips can be noisy for nearby residents. Choosing the right option means balancing safety, cost and community impact.
• A slow process. No local highways authority (LHA) moves quickly and the stock answer to any change is often “no”. Highways are highly regulated. LHAs tend to be cautious and don’t want to set precedents. The Police may also push back, especially if they believe a lower speed limit could lead to more dangerous behaviour like risky overtaking, or if they think they won’t be able to enfore any new speed limits.
• Cost. All solutions will involve money, sometimes quite a lot. Those spending it will be mindful of this. Sometimes, costs may be needed to be covered by the community, so fund-raising may be needed.
• Community support. Not everybody may agree there is a problem, or what the solution is: some people may find the solution is worse than the problem. Things are less likely to happen if the community isn’t fully supportive of them.
• Unintended consequences. Sometimes time and money can be spent solving one issue, but can create another such as traffic speeding on a nearby road instead.
• Drivers’ responsibility. Whatever measures are taken, there’s a human driving the car. Rules are only one factor, and not always the most important one, people will consider when deciding how to drive. “People are often in a hurry to get from point A to point B,” Linda Moss observed, often regardless of the danger that they are causing.

As I said at the start, I have personal reasons for wanting to see this problem solved. And I hope it doesn’t take a serious accident for a solution to be put in place. I have many notes of the conversations I had and I hope that my notes will be used in the near future to create a more detailed article. However, as I mentioned, one week wasn’t enough time to do this – the subject is too big…

Tyler Moody

More information about Compton and the surrounding villages can be found in Penny Post’s Compton & Downlands Weekly News columns, updated weekly. This includes news stories, events, information on voluntary and community groups and updates from the town and parish councils.