Talks under way after Wolviston residents submit petition calling for Stockton Borough Council to introduce speed restrictions
Residents have handed over a petition calling for speed restrictions to be introduced in their village before someone is killed.
Organisers say more than 1,000 signatures were collected in a bid to persuade Stockton Borough Council to introduce traffic calming measures in Wolviston.
The petition follows research by Wolviston Community Speedwatch Group which suggests that around two thirds of vehicles exceed 30 miles per hour limits in the village.
Breffni Martin, a Wolviston parish councillor and chair of Wolviston Community Speedwatch Group, said: “The data does not lie.
"The speed wires say 4,500 cars a day cut through our village, 3,000 of these are speeding. It’s only a matter of time before someone is killed.”
Local councillors have also added their support.
Praising the work of the parish council and speedwatch group, Stockton borough councillor Marcus Ward said: “We can’t wait until the fatal statistic happens to tick a council bureaucratic box.”
Fellow Conservative borough councillor David Reynard added: “We all know the statistic that a pedestrian hit at 30mph has a one in five chance of surviving, where as a pedestrian hit at 35mph, that chance is reduced significantly to one in three”.
Among recent incidents in the area was a crash in April in which six people were seriously injured after a car collided with a barn wall in Coal Lane.
Persistent problems last year led to scores of villagers protesting on the village’s green amid calls for the 30 miles per hour limits to be reduced to 20 miles per hour.
Resident Vici Collins has now said: “It’s only a matter of time before someone is killed in Wolviston.
"It’s becoming a race track for the most dangerous drivers with no regard for anyone including the children walking to the village school.”
A spokesperson for Stockton Borough Council said the authority had written to the organisers to inform them that the petition has been deemed to be invalid following a verification process.
But the spokesperson added: “However, before the petition was submitted, discussions were under way between the ward councillors and the highways team to explore some specific traffic calming measures in Wolviston village.”