Speed limit at Cat and Fiddle could be cut

It's been discussed for years

The speed limit near Exeter City Football Club’s training ground at Cat and Fiddle near Clyst St Mary looks likely to be cut.

Currently the stretch of the A3052 Sidmouth Road has a 50 mph limit, despite two previous attempts to lower it. The area contains a retirement community, a pub, and a number of houses.

Now Devon’s highways chief has indicated his support for a 40 mph zone.

The issue came up at a meeting of the East Devon highways and traffic orders committee (HATOC) where members also approved a new signalled pedestrian crossing and bus stops outside the nearby Crealy Adventure Park and Hill Barton Business Park.

Around £225,000 will be spent on the scheme, expected to come from a mixture of the council’s local transport plan and third-party contributions.

Devon County Council says it will improve pedestrian safety and increase the “attractiveness of public transport.”

Speaking at the HATOC meeting on Monday, councillor Ray Steer-Kemp of Bishops Clyst Parish Council said he was “delighted” at the new crossing and bus stops, and the scheme is “urgently required due to the safety issues at this junction.”

Cllr Steer-Kemp warned there is a “serious requirement” to lower the 50 mph limit in the area around the nearby Cat and Fiddle Residential Park, due to the “inherent danger” of the road on its 270 residents.

His remarks came after a report to the meeting by highways officers found there is “no new data to suggest that the reduction is justified in the current situation.”

But members disagreed with that verdict and asked the ruling cabinet to approve a lower limit. Chair of the committee Stuart Hughes (Conservative, Sidmouth), who is also the cabinet member for highways, signalled his support for the change.

Outlying his concerns for the retirement community, cllr Steer Kemp added: “We must consider the age of the residents and their manoeuvrability, either by car or on foot, to reach their destinations.

“There is a footpath immediately adjacent to the A3052 all the way to Clyst St Mary village, but this is rarely used by residents owing to large lorries passing so close at speed and causing a backdraft that is a hazard to elderly pedestrians.

“Factor in the spray in wet conditions and the overgrown vegetation narrowing the footpath and this becomes virtually unusable.”

Cllr Steer-Kemp said the high speed limit also meant residents had trouble getting out of the residential park by car and in walking to the bus stop on the other side of the road.

“How can it possibly be acceptable for residents to be confined to their residential park, due to the difficulty in leaving it?” he asked.

Councillor Sara Randall-Johnson (Conservative, Broadclyst) also called for the 40 mph limit to be introduced and for a review of speed limits along the whole of the A3052 through East Devon.

She said: “One of the things I think is absolutely vitally important is that we try and reduce deaths on the road,” referring to Project EDWARD, which stands for ‘every day without a road death.’

The committee had previously asked the council’s ruling cabinet to lower the speed limit around Cat and Fiddle in 2010 and 2012, but on both occasions it decided not to change the existing 50 mph zone.

However, councillor Henry Gent (Green, Broadclyst) said since then the size of the vehicles had changed because of the new anaerobic digestor facility at Clyst St Mary, and increased activity at Hill Barton which is the site of a new energy-from-waste plant being constructed.

“So we’re talking about big lorries which will go as fast as they can when the traffic allows it, and I think it is wrong to have 50 [mph] on that stretch as the speed limit. It really should be 40,” he said.

Councillor Richard Scott (Conservative, Exmouth) took issue at the council’s entire policy on speed limits which he described as “rigid” and asked for it to be reviewed. He called it “madness” to put a crossing on a road with a 50 mph limit.

“If there’s a justification for a crossing, there’s a justification for a lower speed limit. If you had a lower speed limit, crossing would be easier without a crossing anyway.”

He added: “This is where I get frustrated about the answer being ‘we can’t depart from policy.’ We write the policies; we agree to the policies. If the policy’s not working, then change it.”

In response, cllr Hughes said as it was a departure from policy it had to go to cabinet. He mentioned that other speed limit requests had led to site visits with the police and other agencies.

But he said there was a “golden opportunity” for an extension to the 40 mph limit through Cat and Fiddle. “It should be a 40, and it should be 40 right through to Clyst St Mary. I’ve got no problem with it at all.”

Cllr Hughes added that a road safety officer thought the area was “almost compliant with a 40 mph limit” and there was “a genuine case” for it to be changed.

Members of the committee approved the pedestrian crossing and associated works, along with asking the cabinet to support lowering the speed limit through Cat and Fiddle.