Mike O'Brien

Kill “The Snake” before it kills someone

Residents in Witherley Road Atherstone have called on the County Council to scrap a series of traffic features which were recently installed because they believe the road is now more dangerous than it was before.  They call the series of raised cushions in the road “The Snake” because cars and buses dodge in and out of traffic lanes to avoid them, like a wriggling snake.  They said that the humps were too high and cars kept scrapping their chassis on them so they drive into the gap in the middle of the road to avoid them.

The residents have called in Mike O’Brien MP to support their pleas to the Council for a rethink of the traffic scheme. 

Local resident Ray Jarvis told the MP that the weaving traffic was dangerous.  The Council traffic Officials had been warned that the road humps were too big, that the gap between them meant that cars would go into the centre of the road to avoid them and yet they had gone ahead with the scheme over local objections.

Mike O’Brien said,”I met with residents on Saturday and as we watched a series of cars and a bus dodge into the centre of the road to avoid the road cushions, some of them in the face of oncoming traffic.  It looked dangerous to me. 

“I think the residents have a case and I am calling on the County Council to go back to the drawing board on this. They need to consult with residents about what is needed.   These humps do not comply with Department of Transport guidance in their design. 

“There needs to be traffic calming on this stretch of road near the school and the Council tried to help by installing it at significant cost.  But it has not worked and new problems have been seen, so this needs looking at again.  I don’t want anyone killed here by the weaving traffic.”