LAMERTON Parish Council has voted to ask for a new speed limit of 20mph to encourage motorists to slow down on the main road through their village.

Pedestrians take their lives in their hands when they walk along the busy main road, the council heard. Cllr Martin Exley-Deane is part of the Lamerton Community Speedwatch, which monitors speeds on the road, from Venn House Residential Home at the south east end of the village to Carr’s Garage to the north west. He suggested the parish council apply to highways authority Devon County Council for permission to designate the main road as a 20mph limit. The parish council had already applied for a 20mph limit through the centre of the village, the loop off the main road past the parish church and village school, the council were told.

‘Our application we made last year still stands in the system and the county council has a new budget for this year,’ said Cllr Exley-Deane. ‘This financial year they have released more funding and called for more parish councils to come forward. We have already asked for a 20mph limit around the whole of the rest of the village. We are now keen to put forward an application for the main road.’

Cllr Exley-Deane said he had gone out on the previous afternoon, Sunday evening, just as it was getting dark to canvas residents living right by the busy road, to ask them whether they would support a 20mph limit.

‘I knocked on the doors and asked what the residents thought. It was around dusk, not a nice time to be out on that road. I knocked on 31 doors. Of those, nine of them were out so I only got an answer from 22 houses. Seventy-seven per cent were in favour of reducing the limit to 20mph. I was just trying to get some information to give the council a steer as to whether the general public thing this would be a good idea.’

The proposal would see the 60mph – national speed limit – jump straight down to 20mph. Both Cllrs Roger Geake and Graham Cundy, who are farmers, were concerned that the 20mph limit would be too low.

Cllr Geake said: ‘I think we are pushing it really with 20, I think if the limit is 20mph you will get more drivers overtaking.’ Cllr Cundy said: ‘ I think driving at 20mph on that stretch of road is almost impossible. Cars are always trying to get on.’

However Cllr Exley-Deane said: ‘I want to do it for pedestrians more than anything. There is a young lady who is pushing a pushchair along that road.’

Cllr Karen Dreyer said: ‘You take your life into your hands on that main road and we are supposed to be encourging people to walk and cycle. You probably won’t make them drive at 20mph. You probably won’t make them drive at 20mph, but it might make them think twice about driving at 40.’

The parish council duly voted to put in an application for the 20mph limit, which needs to be made by Devon County Council.