Coach drivers urged to slow down!

Feb 11 2010 Buckinghamshire Advertiser

FRESH attempts are being made to get coach drivers to slow down as they hurtle past hundreds of children walking to schools in Beaconsfield.

The town's neighbourhood action group (NAG) has taken up the cause following complaints by parents who are 'scared' by the speed at which coaches dropping pupils at The Beaconsfield School and Beaconsfield High School are driven along Wattleton Road.

The group resolved on Monday to ask Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) to make the entire road a 20mph zone at the start and end of the school day.Caroline Finn, who walks her sons to Butlers Court School, said: "The buses may be only doing 30 or so (the current speed limit) but they come very close and it feels very daunting. As they swing round the corner the front end swings round and overhangs the pavement."

She added: "I've seen a driver using his mobile."

Mum Claire McHugh said: "It's quite scary."

Another mother, Sarah Waller, said: "It's so threatening because of the wind blast; 30 is just too fast. Because of the size and proximity it feels like 40. The coaches are less than a foot away from the pavement. If you put your hand out you'd touch it."

Chairman Andre de Marsac said 18 months of attempts by the NAG to persuade coach drivers to slow down voluntarily, through talks with the county council, had failed.

He said: "It doesn't sound like the most difficult thing for a county council to get together, and yet we have been knocking our heads against a brick wall."

Tom Murphy, owner of Ashwood Travel, a company whose drivers do drive slowly, according to parents, said nobody had contacted him about a voluntary slowdown, apart from Beaconsfield police, who issued all drivers a letter in September.

Chris Schwier, transport localities team leader for BCC, said: "Were a 20mph speed limit to be considered for the rest of Wattleton Road it would be permanent, it could not be just for peak times.

"When the original proposals for traffic calming were first consulted on, opposition was raised regarding the section of road from Walkwood Rise to where the current calming starts, which is why the current calming and speed limit is confined to the section of road it is on.

"We are working with our home to school transport to ensure that the buses travelling to and from the school approach at suitable speeds, and this was dealt with when first raised and has been monitored."

Mr De Marsac has resigned as NAG chairman citing 'frustrations with county' as one of his reasons.