Havant Road is currently a 40MPH limit, and as a parish Councillor I recall work by Cllr Evans and others to canvas the doorstep to get the community view on changing this. In 2013 HCC undertook a review of the road speed limits in the area, and this was one of the roads that has been put forward for lowering to 30MPH.
The Havant Road development was used as a route for the road to be redesigned to better suit a 30MPH layout and now this is in place.
HCC are planning to start work on the proposed 30mph speed limit extension in November and this will include the usual statutory TRO procedure (consultation, public advertisement, etc) before arranging for the speed limit signing to be changed subject, of course, to no insurmountable objections being received.
We understood it was happening but grateful to have it confirmed. On the insitgation of the police Peter Hatherley and I did a survery of all the residents in the road a couple of years ago.
Now all we need is to have the lay-by replaced to give us much needed parking. Marge Harvey is working hard on that for us – we are so short of parking spaces in the village and the hairdressers in particular have lost customers who used to park there and walk back
A postscript to my other comment. If you live on Havant Road and would like the lay-by re-instated please email Marge and let her know for the more people who ask the better her case.
Hello Guy, great to hear that at least one road in the area is getting the speed limit lowered. However why is Downhouse road to Lovedean Lane still a national speed limit road? last week the lane was closed for another RTA due to high speed (overturned car) . Downhouse southbound becomes Lovedean lane as you know and we get very high rates of speed being carried through Lovedean. We had a fatal due to speed in the lane a coupel of years back and still nothing has been done even though everyone knows its a pr0oblem. There are many more horsesd using the lane as well.
Downhouse still has the ‘SID’ record of 106MPH and Lovedean Lane is one of the highest average speed roads in county with almost 50% of traffic in excess of 35MPH and a lot in excess of 45MPH! Have asked HCC for the road to be lowered to 40MPH (Lovedean Lane to Downhouse) but there seems to be no movement! What needs to be done to get this problem attended to? I noted that Finchdean had their road lowered to 40MPH from a national and Marge tells me it’s just a case of issuing a traffic order! So how can we get this done to start helping reduce the speeds through Lovedean?
Your views would be appreciated.
Good Morning Dave,
First off, I fully agree. The SID unit was one of the projects I organised as a Parish Councillor and has great support from other Councillors. The intention is that the data would be used to pass to the police for enforcement (which does happen) and the County Council for road safety improvements. Marge is, I think, the main point of contact here to get access to and support from Hampshire County Council. A while ago as a Parish Councillor I also looked for support for Village Gateways to be installed around the area on these roads. These typically have a planter either side with a sign saying “Welcome to Lovedean, Please drive carefully” and on the reverse “thank you for driving safely”. The road also has a section of different coloured tarmac across it so there is a visible line the cars cross. I would like something like this to be rolled out across the parish and if Marge can help with HCC then she will get a lot of support. Probably the best way to do this is to hold a meeting with HCC where all of the SID data is used to look for supporting evidence where this will help with lowering vehicle speeds. Best Wishes, Guy.