Enmore Parish Council
Traffic Management Programme
Enmore Road is an important and well-used route between Bridgwater and Taunton, with significantly increased volumes of traffic when the nearest section of the M5 is closed. Enmore residents have become increasingly concerned about the speed of traffic and its effect on the safety of road users. In 2022/23 the Parish Council bought four Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) and these have helped to keep a far higher proportion of vehicles within or close to the speed limit in the 30mph sections of road they cover. The Parish Council made another formal request to the Somerset Highways Department for the speed limits within the village to be reviewed and amended, to simplify them and to reduce speeds in and approaching the current 40mph mid-village section (ironically the section in the village many residents consider to be the most dangerous). The report submitted to support the request may be downloaded here. The previous request was not deemed to be sufficiently high priority because there had not been a fatal accident. The Parish Council would prefer any accident, fatal or otherwise, to be avoided by having more logical and less complicated speed limits throughout the length of the village.
We are delighted to say that, after clearing all the red tape hurdles, these changes have now been approved and are scheduled for implementation in the 2024/25 financial year. Enmore Parish Council will be contributing a maximum of £5,000 towards the cost and have made provision for this in their budget. The full programme includes refurbishment of existing signage (much of which is now hard to read) as well as the change in speed limit in the section near the Memorial Hall and Golf Club. In addition, the 20 mph signs in the section near Enmore School will be altered to 30 mph, except when flashing lights show. This is in line with practice for other schools. This means that the 20 mph limit will still operate when appropriate (in particular at the start and end of the school day) but not when there are no pupils in the vicinity.​
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