Petition calls for slower speeds outside Melksham’s secondary school

A petition has been launched to introduce a 20mph speed limit and install flashing lights on the road leading to Melksham Oak Community School, in a bid to improve the safety of students leaving and accessing the site.

The joint petition, by Melksham Oak Community School and Wiltshire councillor Nick Holder, follows a number of complaints about the speed of vehicles and some ‘near-misses’ that have involved students and vehicles outside the school.

Cllr Nick Holder, who represents the Bowerhill ward said, “Since the school returned to full on-site teaching, post lockdowns, there has been an increase in the number of comments about pupil safety.

“On the approach to the school from Devizes, as traffic passes the Turnpike Garage, speed is reduced from 60 mph to 40 mph and then to 30 mph as it comes into Bowerhill. There is no signage on the approach to suggest the you are approaching a school. In fact, the only signage indicating the school is there, is a right-turn sign into the school car park. Recently, there have been a number of near misses, and about two months ago a student was hit by a car travelling from Devizes.

“If you drive past the school around 2.50pm, you will see over 1,000 children pouring out of the school and the principal and his leadership team take it in turns to try to manage the flows.

“The idea behind the petition is to demonstrate that not only the current school community wants this reduction, but the wider Melksham community wants it too. There will be many parents of children who attend primary schools in the Melksham area who are not yet directly affected by what happens at Melksham Oak, but as their children get older, they will be.”

Melksham Oak Community School is situated next to the A365 which connects Melksham to Devizes and links into the A350, for traffic heading north to the M4 and South. It is also part of the designated route to access the Bowerhill industrial estate.

Leader of Wiltshire Council, cllr Richard Clewer, is in support of this petition. Cllr Holder said, “In seeking support for this introduction, I have discussed this in detail with Richard Clewer, who after driving past the school offered his broad support.

“I am hopeful if we can demonstrate the community wants this, we can have it introduced for the start of the 23/23 academic year. We would be happy with the limit to be introduced just during term time and for school entry and exit times. This will enhance pupil safety and reduce emissions outside the school when over 1,000 of our children are arriving and leaving.”

Principal of Melksham Oak Community School, Alan Henderson said, “I think introducing this speed limit is absolutely essential. When the school was designed, for some reason, a single point entry and exit was not considered well. We have got nearly 1,300 young people leaving through one exit onto a very narrow footpath. There are lorries that thunder past here at clearly more than 30 or 40mph and it’s very frightening. We have got students leaving on bikes and it’s a narrow footpath.

“Whilst we accept that sometimes students can jump on and off the footpath, the fact is that the traffic is moving at such a speed that all it will take is the slightest bit of contact. We’ve had one or two scares, with cars going too fast and getting too close to students, it’s very concerning for me.”

Once enough signatures have been collected, the petition will be put forward to Wiltshire Council.

Scan the QR code to support this petition.

Cllr Nick Holder added, ““In England, the responsibility for setting speed limits outside schools generally sits with the local authority with responsibility for Highways. However, in Scotland, Wales and also Northern Ireland, the devolved administrations have the power to set national policy. In all cases where there is devolved accountability, there is now a policy in place to limit speed outside schools which are situated on major road, like an A road. As part of networking with other English local authorities, the expectation is similar legislation may well be passed to cover England. However, there is no visible timeline for this to happen.”