A FOUR metre wide “pinch point” on a 60 mph road with no pavement has long been a big worry for people living at Barnstaple Cross, Crediton.

The pinch point is on Higher Road between the A377 and Jonathan Wood Veterinary Surgery.

Resident, John Moore, said that recently there had been a situation where two commercial vehicles had met at this point, with the result that an articulated lorry had to back out onto the A377 so that Higher Road could be cleared for the other lorry and the cars behind it.

“We also understand that traffic from Copplestone, coming through in blocks because of the traffic lights, had been queuing on the A377 to turn left into Higher Road,” he said.

He had measured the road to be four metres wide at the pinch point. “The pinch point on a blind bend is no longer fit for purpose.

“We now have six vehicles a minute at peak periods. When we had the one-way system for the three weeks the High Street was closed, the road was very busy and fast, but we did not have the block-ups that we do now,” he added.

He was among a small group of residents who went to Tuesday’s Mid Devon HATOC (Highways and Traffic Orders Committee) in Tiverton when this road was discussed, following concerns by Sandford Parish Council and the local Devon County Councillors Margaret Squires and Nick Way.

The committee was told that because of funding restrictions, it was increasingly difficult for local authorities to secure funding or make a strong case for smaller schemes, such as new pavements and traffic calming schemes, as had been suggested for this part of Higher Road.

To ease things along, it agreed to refer it to the Speed Compliance Action Review Forum (SCARF), developed by the county council and police to access concerns such as this in a consistent manner.

SCARF is normally made up of police representatives, a county council road safety officer and local highways officers. The HATOC was unanimous that improvement was needed.

After the meeting Cllr Way added: “We have said there should be a 30 mph limit there, 60 mph is ridiculous when people walk along there.

“My main gripe is that we were told that when the link road was built the county council would give a report on how it has affected the rest of the local road network but the council has not done this.

“I have been told this was because there have been so many financial cuts, but it does intend to do this.

“Solving the problem at Higher Road would be further forward if this had been done because we could now possibly step in to make it a 30 mph zone but now we shall have to go through this whole speed check process,” he added.

People may have heard about the problems on Higher Road on Tuesday morning’s BBC Radio Devon.

Sue Read