Town's entry roads to have speed limits reduced?

Lincolnshire County Council’s planning & regulation committee have voted to reduce the 40mph speed limits on Spilsby Road, Boston Road and Langton Hill in Horncastle to 30mph.

This comes after a recent council report on the town’s speed signs revealed that the highest speed recorded on both Langton Hill and Boston Road were a shocking 70mph, while the highest on Spilsby Road was 63mph.

It was also shown that the stretch of Boston Road near Banovallum School recorded a top speed on 75mph – more than double its speed limit of 30mph.

A spokesman for Horncastle Town Council said: “This is something we’ve wanted for a long time, especially on these three roads as they are the busiest entrances into the town so having them at 30mph makes sense.”

A similar appeal to have the speed limit also reduced to 30mph on Louth Road was rejected due to the density of residential houses on the road.

A Lincolnshire County Council Highways spokesman said: “In accordance with the council’s speed limit policy, the level of speed limit to be applied is set in accordance with the mean speed of traffic.

"At these locations, the mean speed has been identified as being within 3mph of the level required to justify a 30mph limit.

"They are therefore classed as borderline cases in the policy and are subject to approval by the Planning and Regulation Committee before they may be progressed.

“Approval was given on June 6 and we can now proceed with the statutory consultation process required to amend the speed limit order.

"The order will be made operative and signs installed in approximately six months time but there are no plans to install variable message signage as part of these works.”