New 20mph speed limits introduced on busy road outside Somerset school

Pupils at a Chard primary school can enjoy a safer walk to and from lessons after new speed limit signs were installed.

Somerset County Council pledged in February 2020 that all schools in the county would have advisory 20mph speed limits in force outside them by 2022, committing £1.5m to deliver the first phase of the programme. The implementation of the new speed limits (under what was dubbed the ’20 When Lights Show’ programme) was unavoidably delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Now Manor Court Community Primary School has had new signs installed outside its entrance to encourage drivers to slow down and improve the safety of pupils, staff and parents. The school lies on the B3162 Duck Lane and Crowshute Link, which run past the town’s Sainsbury’s supermarket and carries large numbers of vehicles at peak times.

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Pupils can safely access the school via a zebra crossing with Belisha beacons, but are vulnerable to fast-moving traffic coming from either the A30 Fore Street or the Holyrood Street roundabout, which links up to the A358. Headteacher Luke Talmage has been campaigning for a lower speed limit outside the school for a number of years, enlisting the support of local councillors along the way.

He said: “It is wonderful to have further traffic calming measures outside the school for the safety of current and future Manor Court pupils. This initiative has been a long time coming and awareness of the need was raised by Year 5 pupils in a project with the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust, which included an online petition that had over one thousand signatures.

“This petition received the support of many members of the local community and politicians.” Figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) show that 2,456 children aged under 16 were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads last year.