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Bury St Edmunds campaigners step up call for permanent safety measures in Nowton Road due to ‘constant speeding’




Campaigners are calling for permanent safety measures on a town road due to ‘constant speeding’.

The residents, who live around Nowton Road, Bury St Edmunds, have made their renewed appeal amid fears that upcoming closures in Sicklesmere Road will make the problem worse.

Bury St Edmunds Town Council has agreed to place speed warning devices along Nowton Road for the duration of the work, which will take place between February 17 and May 5.

Campaigners want permanent speed reduction measures in Nowton Road. Picture: Mark Westley
Campaigners want permanent speed reduction measures in Nowton Road. Picture: Mark Westley

But campaigners have reissued the appeal to Suffolk County Council to introduce permanent measures, after the work is complete.

Ian Bowers, a member of Speed Awareness Nowton Road (SANR) group, set up to monitor the road, said: “Temporary measures are fine but it’s not good enough in the long term.

“The problem of speeding - and people using the road as a rat run - are ongoing and will still be ongoing, even after the Sicklesmere closures have ended. This development itself will make matters worse, when it is complete.

“Nowton Road is used daily by people, including school children - and it is dangerous.”

Hopkins Homes has announced eight weekend closures of the A134 Sicklesmere Road on the approach to Bury.

The developer is installing a roundabout on to the A134 as part of work on its Abbots Vale estate and accompanying relief road towards the A14.

Sicklesmere Road will remain open on weekdays but traffic lights will be in place.

Residents around Nowton Road have been campaigning for several years for tighter safety measures, including asking for a 20mph limit.

Mr Bowers added: “Having monitored the speed and volume of traffic on Nowton Road, between Nowton Country Park and Plovers Way, during 2022/23, under the police speed watch scheme, the SANR group gathered sufficient evidence to designate this stretch of road as a speeding hotspot.

“One of the measures that was introduced was a speed indicator device but this is temporary as it is shared with several other sites, in and around Bury. It has been used on the road twice in the last year, for two weeks each time.

“The SANR group has continued, and will continue, to lobby the town council and county council to have permanent traffic calming measures put into place along this stretch of Nowton Road.”

Jodie Budd, town clerk for Bury St Edmunds Town Council, said: “It has been agreed with the speed watch group that one of our two speed indicator devices will be placed along Nowton Road during the duration of the Sicklesmere Road works.”

A spokesman for Suffolk County Council said that mitigation measures are proposed for Nowton Road during the Sicklesmere Road closures, even though it is not part of the official diversion route.

The council said the measures would involve community engagement to provide clear information on all closures, provision of advance warning signs on variable message signs to notify motorists of upcoming closures, and installing clear diversion signs to warn motorists of the closure, well in advance.

He added: “Traffic should be aware of what is expected of them as far south as Long Melford. This gives motorists direction to avoid the obstruction by using the approved route, following main A roads capable of carrying high volumes of traffic.

“The message should then be repeated all the way along the A134 to both reinforce the message and also warn and direct traffic entering the A134 from side roads.”

The council has been asked for further comment regarding the introduction of permanent measures on Nowton Road.

Sicklesmere Road will be closed from 8pm on Fridays to 5am on Mondays on February 21-24, March 7-10, March 21-24, March 28-31, April 4-7, April 11-14, April 25-28 and May 2-5.