‘KILL YOUR SPEED!’ – Protest group slows down the traffic in Atworth

AROUND 100 villagers in Atworth recently gathered together to protest against continued speeding through their village.

The ‘slow down’ demonstration was in response to increasing concerns about the speeding traffic through Atworth.

Sarah Horrell who organised the demonstration said, “Despite the miserable weather, we had a great turn out. Everyone had different ideas on the best way to slow people down. Some simply stood at the side of the road with their signs but others stood along the zebra crossing, which is a problem in the village.

“Most people who drove through gave us a friendly toot or a thumbs up, but there were a few who were clearly not impressed with our demonstration and found us an inconvenience.

“The most important thing was to raise awareness which is what we did. Now we will discuss what else can be done to solve the problems. It was great to see so many people, but there will be a lot more who feel the same as us but who don’t get involved and will leave it for other people to do. But it is everybody’s issue.

“We will be getting the school involved because that’s one of the big problems. The safety of our children is paramount and something must be done before something terrible happens. We will do all we can to raise awareness and will support the parish council who are fully behind this issue.

“There are lots of solutions that we know aren’t possible, but we want to know what is possible. We won’t stop campaigning until something is done.”

Effie Gale-Sides, chairman of Atworth Parish Council, attended the demonstration. She said, “It is accepted by Atworth villagers that our pedestrian crossing is not as safe as it should be as traffic very frequently does not stop when it should. This is because of low visibility of the beacon lights in daytime and also speeding traffic.

“A big step towards a solution is to make the lights much more visible by installing flashing LED Halo lights such as those at Shaw Church. The parish council will be asking the Melksham Area Board for a contribution towards the cost of these.

“Along with the demonstration, I have a village petition with over 200 signatures asking for these improvements, met with our MP Michelle Donelan, and received letters of support from our key organisations. We hope that this will influence Wiltshire Council to show that they value the safety of our villagers and to realise that this would be money well spent.

“There has been a problem with speeding traffic in Atworth for very many years. In recent times Wiltshire Highways has looked for a solution by providing us with our crossing, a lower 30mph speed limit, a white Village Gateway (denoting entering a rural community) and additional road markings.

“We have a dedicated SpeedWatch team who work very hard on our behalf. We have had an active Atworth Traffic Action Group who provided much statistical data. However a speeding car can kill at 30mph and vehicles still go through our community at speeds far in excess of that with complete disregard.”

The protest group has plans to discuss further demonstrations and ideas for the campaign and has also set up an e-petition on the Wiltshire Council website; to sign visit