Sign of speeding on 30mph road (From Gazette Series)

Sign of speeding on 30mph road

SIR - I really can't see what all the fuss is about surrounding the new "monstrous", "imposing" and "intrusive" directional road sign on the B4058 (Gazette, December 5) going out of Wotton towards Wickwar.

Although personally I agree with the above descriptions of this hideous sign, the explanation for it is clarified by the county council spokeswoman Sam Roffe. She says " .... generally, the faster the speed of the vehicles on the road, the larger the sign that is required for drivers to read it". And that is what it is all about!

Does this mean then that the county council has finally accepted that traffic at this spot travels in excess of the 30mph limit operational here, and has erected the right-sized sign after all? This sign is right in the middle of a 30mph limit so traffic shouldn't be travelling in excess of 30mph anyway, but traffic coming up the hill and more so going down the hill does travel far in excess of the limit imposed. The 30mph limit is abused. I live on that road and I see it daily.

I see no mention of the much smaller "School" sign, of equal, if not more importance, some 60 paces in front of it. If the size of the directional sign is correct for drivers travelling at 30mph, as Ms Roffe intimates it is, then the size of the "School" sign must be for the slower moving pedestrian or maybe any tortoises using that route.

Mr N M Clews in his letter (Gazette, December 5) is right when he says that anyone bent on speeding will not reduce their speed because of a few speed limit signs. And they won't, and don't, in New Road hill either.

Thomas Hinder Westfields Wotton-under-Edge