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Published:
August 19, 2008
Berrow Coast Road safety campaigners to hold 'community walk'
Berrow residents who have been campaigning for safety improvements
along a busy stretch of road in the village will hold a special
'community walk' on Bank Holiday Monday (August 25th) to draw
attention to long-running concerns about safety.
Residents
will meet on Monday at 11am in the car park at St. Mary's Church,
the location of a visit by MP David Heathcoat-Amory last
year, as pictured here, when he gave his support to the campaign
to introduce pavemnts along Coast Road.
Lynn
Smith, clerk to Berrow Parish Council, told Burnham-On-Sea.com:
"Local
people have to walk this dangerous section of Coast Road and holidaymakers
try to walk it but turn back when they realise that there is no
footway and not even a verge to use as a refuge. It is only a
matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed."
"The
volume of traffic along the Coast Road increases each year with
the expansion of the many caravan parks in Berrow and Brean. This
increase in the traffic conflicts with the many people trying
to walk or cycle along the road."
The
walk comes amid a fresh push by residents to force Somerset County
Council to introduce safety changes along the road - a fight that
has been ongoing for many years.
"In
2001, Berrow residents were delighted to learn that Somerset County
Council had ranked the Coast Road footway scheme as one of the
highest schemes within the Local Transport Plan 2001 - 2006 and
had allocated funding for the installation of the footway during
the financial year 2001/2002. The first stage of the footway,
the northern section, between Unity Farm and Hurn Lane was completed
during that financial year, much to the delight of the many residents
and visitors to Berrow," Lynn Smith, clerk to Berrow Parish
Council, told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
"Unfortunately,
though, due to problems encountered with land negotiations with
the Burnham and Berrow Golf Club, the installation of the southern
section between Hurn Lane and St. Mary's Church was delayed."
 "Land
negotiations continued for many months until, in April 2003, the
Golf Club agreed, in principle, subject to several conditions
being given due consideration, to dedicate to Somerset County
Council the land required for highway purposes."
"One
of the conditions was the installation of a chain-link fence to
be erected along the length of the southern section of the footway.
Unfortunately, this also caused delays, as Sedgemoor District
Council indicated that planning permission for the fence would
be required and that this would be unlikely to be supported."
"However,
planning permission for the fence was granted by Somerset County
Council in December 2005, well within the lifespan of LTP1 and
therefore the installation of the footway was eagerly awaited."
"All
of Berrow's residents and visitors were therefore horrified to
hear in June 2006 that the Coast Road footway scheme was not going
to be completed and that monies allocated to the scheme had been
vired elsewhere."
"They
were even more concerned to hear that this scheme was unlikely
to be included within Local Transport Plan 2 from 2006 - 2011,
and that there was a distinct possibility that the footway would
not be completed before 2012 and maybe not at all."
A
child was injured
in an accident along the busy stretch of road where it joins
manor Way in March this year (marked on the map above).
RELATED
LINKS:
Burnham
MP backs campaign for Coast Road safety improvements
Online
video of statements given by Cllr Ham and Burnham's MP
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