Following a series of accidents in Netherhampton Road last year, I asked local councillors to look into the issue of speeding and heavy lorries along the road. As a result a speed measurement wire was installed a short distance back from my home and speeds were recorded for a week. Wiltshire County Council informed the councillors that there was no evidence of accidents or excessive speeding, this despite my own research and experience recording some 12 incidents and accidents in the period since the resurfacing of Netherhampton Road alone! These "non-existent" accidents included my own home being hit by a stolen car estimated to be travelling at around 70mph at 6.00 a.m., two lorries colliding outside the OneStop shop, a child being knocked down, a local resident having their car deliberately rammed from behind wen she tried to pull up to reverse on to her drive and one unfortunate couple whose front wall was demolished by a runaway driver for the third time! The results of the speeding wire showed that on average 85,000 vehicles a week were passing down Netherhampton Road and examination of the figures passed to me appear to show that 15 % of the traffic is travelling at 34mph or greater. 34 is 13% above the speed limit. That's 11000 vehicles; 1580 a day; 66 each hour; one vehicle every 55 seconds, travelling at least 113% of the legal speed limit! As the correspondent above indicates, there are times when the heavy vehicle traffic saturates what is after all a very narrow road. My home is shaken by heavy lorries passing from around 4.30 a.m. every weekday morning, and the noise created by them hurtling along is becoming noticeably louder. The speed of many of these vehicles leaves us a residents waiting for someone to be killed before any action is taken, indeed the letters received by my local councillor last year would apper to more or less state this to be the case.

The lorry park and cattle market are listed as reasons why this huge amount of heavy traffic is allowed to use what is really a residential street, however these are accessible from the Ring Road and Wilton Road where there is much less residential area. My suggestion that a weight restriction was placed on the Harnham Junction was met with stoney silence by all concerned. I understand from local residents who have lived in West Harnham far longer than I have that the traffic was "invited" to use Netherhampton Road during the re-building of the skew bridge and thatit was upgraded to an "A" road as a result of this. Given that the legal size of lorries has increased considerably during recent years, we are now have vehicles that are simply too big for the road pounding up and down at all times of day and night, and they basically are destroying the quality of life of residents. To encourage even more traffic on to this road is a madness and while I would not want to stop progress I would certainly agree that Harnham and Netherhampton Roads are simply at saturation point and are a death trap waiting to happen.

Incidentally, following the major repairs to the road which was collapsing as a result of the weight it was carrying, readers might be interested to hear that thre are already considerable signs of it sinking again and large holes are beginning to appear at various sites!