Carnock: Objection to 20mph zone 'almost feel vexatious'

The South and West Fife area committee heard that one man's opposition to the proposal - requested after two 'near misses' involving children on Main Street within the space of a few weeks - "almost feels vexatious".

Committee convener, Cllr David Barratt, said: "In terms of the complainer, to be perfectly honest they've been time wasting on this one and many others I suspect.

"It's a pity we have to keep coming back to this kind of thing."

Twenty is plenty in Carnock after councillors agreed to set aside a time wasting objection to the road safety move. (Image: Newsquest)

Fife Council proposed the traffic regulation order for Carnock in April but the matter was back on the agenda after an objection was maintained during the consultation period.

A report to the committee explained: "The objector felt there was no need for more speed limit restrictions other than outside the primary school where they thought this was already 20mph.

"The objector had not seen the changes to the traffic lights and that the pedestrian crossing had been moved.

"Although these points had been clarified, the objector still felt that the speed limit changes should only be outside the primary school and not for the full length of the village."

It added that the objector was informed of the "wishes of the community" and that the speed limit outside the school was currently 30mph, but wished to maintain their opposition.

Cllr Sam Steele, who had requested an "urgent" change to the speed limit last November, said: "It's really frustrating this has happened and obviously it's put a delay on everything.

There have been changes to the traffic signals outside Carnock Primary School, with a new 20mph speed limit to be implemented for the whole village. (Image: Google Maps)

"Given the fact the complainer didn't actually know about the traffic signal upgrade work and didn't appear to know what the speed limit in front of the school is, and even after being told that, still maintained their objection, I really hope my colleagues will agree to set this objection aside and then we can actually progress with this."

Cllr Graeme Downie said: "This almost feels vexatious. Do we know if the individual is from the local area? As Cllr Steele said it doesn't really feel like he is.

"I hope we can set this aside and approve this new speed limit as it's much needed in the village."

Traffic management consultant Lesley Craig said: "With objections it doesn't matter if someone is local or not. Anyone has the option to object to any traffic order that we propose.

"They may pass through the area."

Cllr Dave Dempsey noted the estimated £6,000 cost and asked how much of the admin costs "can be attributed to this one persistent objection".

Ms Craig said it costs the council "roughly" £2,000 per traffic order in terms of admin, staff and legal costs, and adverts in the newspaper, and extra time for officers and councillors when an objection is made.

She added that, in this case, the remaining £4,000 will be spent on "signing and lining".

Cllr Steele said one of the near misses involved a five-year-old boy on his way to school with his family.

She had previously told the Press: "The speed that cars are coming down into Carnock, very few are doing 30mph or under so, while it was a near-miss, it could easily have been much worse.

"It is really concerning. A car hitting a child at 30mph would be catastrophic."