THE speed limit on part of the A4440 Bath Road in Worcester is to be reduced to the delight of a campaigning councillor. 

The limit will drop from the current 40mph to 30mph at the section from Elm Green Close to the Ketch Roundabout.

The news has been welcomed by St Peter’s Parish Councillor Roger Knight, who has been campaigning for several years for this to happen.

He said: “Many years ago Worcester’s city boundary used to be near to where Elm Green Close is today and St. Peter’s was farmland, so it made sense for the speed limit for traffic leaving Worcester to increase to 40mph at that point.

“Today, however, the area has become more built up and includes two pedestrian crossings, a roundabout, several right-hand turns as well as a well-used pavement. A 40mph speed limit is no longer appropriate. There have also been a lot of accidents by the Timberdine roundabout.”

After many years of campaigning by Cllr. Knight and St. Peter’s Parish Council to persuade Worcestershire’s County Highways that a 30mph speed limit is more appropriate, the reduction in the speed limit has finally gone through and is expected to take effect later this year. 

Cllr. Knight said: “You would not believe how many years St Peter’s Parish Council and I have been asking for this common-sense change.

"It must be well over a decade.

"This all goes back to when the Oil Storage Depot was demolished in 2006 and 91 dwellings were subsequently built, changing the Bath Road, south of Elm Green Close along to the Timberdine roundabout, from semi-rural to a more urban environment.

"The pavement along this stretch, on the West side of Bath Road, was improved and the granite sets removed and replaced by kerbstone. That changed the whole nature of the road.

"The city boundary had long since been extended right through to the conifer hedge on the South side of the Ketch Field and the nature of the section of road in question, became more ‘city’ than ‘rural’.

“I tried subsequently to get the speed limit down to 30mph but no success. However, St. Peter’s Parish Council joined in and we were all surprised when it went through, so it will become 30mph through to the Ketch roundabout.”

This announcement was greeted on social media by many comments of “well done.”