The Parish Council has a Road Safety Advisory Group which believes that the cause of most of the road safety issues in the village is the speed and volume of traffic through the village and the lack of observance of the 20 mph speed limit. It is the view of the Road Safety Group that if a way could be found of ensuring the 20mph through physical measures the situation should improve.
There are a number of possible solutions:
Road Narrowing and chicanes: these can have the desired effect of reducing speed but can also encourage traffic to speed up to beat the oncoming traffic. This would also have to be accompanied by parking restrictions and would result in double yellow lines on the approach to the narrowing/chicane and the loss of current residential parking.
Rumble strips – can cause vibration into nearby houses and don’t physically slow down traffic but alert drivers to the change in speed limit.
Speed bumps – do physically slow vehicles but can encourage rapid acceleration and deceleration and creates noise when vehicles pass over the bump.
Speed Table or Speed Cushion – A speed table is a modified version of a speed hump with a flatter top surface and longer in length. Does physically slow down vehicles and suitable for use at crossing points. However may be cause of noise and vibration.
The Road Safety Group favour Speed Tables as these could be used for crossing points in the village next to the Spar and the Fox and Hounds Pub and also used to generally slow down traffic through the village, on Holeyn Hall Road and Wylam Wood Road. We have also seen how effective these are on the Gateshead side of the river in slowing down traffic from Crawcrook through Ryton
There have been a number of previous proposals to address areas of concern throughout the village such as crossing points outside the Spar and the Fox and Hounds/sports fields and school bus drop off points. To date, these proposals have been unacceptable to Northumberland County Council or the local community. Any subsequent proposals to change traffic management through the village would be subject to consultation with the community by Northumberland County Council.