New speed limit to stop '˜Devil' drivers

Following concerns about road safety, Lincolnshire County Council is proposing that the speed limit be reduced and extended from 40-30mph over Langrick Bridge on the B1192 and along Ferry Lane.

It is also planning to extend the existing 40mph limit at Gipsey Drove, between Langrick and Gipsey Bridge, and reduce from 60mph to 50mph the limit on the section of road that runs up to the 30mph zone at Gipsey Bridge.

David Ball, who has owned Boston Marina in Langrick Road for almost five years, set up the petition calling for a cut in the speed limit on the B1192 which he said gained ‘hundreds’ of signatures.

“Cars come screaming round the corner at 70mph,” he added. “I have clocked them on a speed camera I use on boats, and they then come screeching to a halt if the light is on red. It’s the way they drive up this road so fast and come round the corner.”

Mr Ball said customers often park on a forecourt opposite his shop and cross the road to reach it, saying: “We have had a few near misses and had people in the middle of the road wondering which way to go as a car comes towards them. It’s quite frightening actually. You get to know the speed the cars are doing by the sound they make.”

Coun Tiggs Keywood-Wainwright brought the petition to the attention of the county council.

She said: “Of course I’m very pleased for all the people that it concerns because this is an accident black spot – it’s very awkward and as you go around the bend it isn’t that easy to see where the road actually goes unless you know it.

“I know someone who had an accident coming from the Horncastle side so it’s something I feel is long overdue and pleased that it got the result they wanted.”

Langriville Parish Council chairman Neil Jones, who in his working life as a coroner’s officer attended fatal road traffic accidents on the B1184 Gipsey Drove, said the fact the road was long and fairly straight, similar the ‘Seven Mile Straight’ (B1183) between Boston and Horncastle, meant it saw a high number of speeding cars.

He said: “We desperately needed the new limit along here.

“It’s a long straight and they come like the devil down in both directions.

“We have had numerous accidents on the corner at Langrick Café and Ferry Lane.”

He added however, that Langriville Parish Council would have liked the limit to go further all the way to and through Langrick.

A spokesman for Lincolnshire County Council said the proposals were ‘currently being publicly advertised with a view to implementation later this year’.

If there are any objections, then the proposals will go to councillors for a decision. If not, officers can simply introduce the new limit.