A road safety campaigner aims to raise the issue of speeding with highways officials at a private meeting in Warminster later this month.

Management consultant Anthony Shoult is campaigning to lower the speed limit in Silver Street, Warminster, from 30mph to 20mph.

He says heavy articulated lorries, vans and cars are travelling far too fast to and from the town centre, placing pedestrians and cyclists at risk.

Wiltshire Times: Anthony Shoult is calling on Wiltshire Council to improve road safety in Warminster. Photo Trevor Porter 67038-1Anthony Shoult is calling on Wiltshire Council to improve road safety in Warminster. Photo Trevor Porter 67038-1 (Image: Trevor Porter)

In October last year, a Ford Fiesta car crashed into a house on the corner of Vicarage Road and Emwell Street, with its four occupants being taken to Salisbury District Hospital for treatment to their injuries.

Mr Shoult, 74, of Silver Street, plans to attend a Local Highways and Footpaths Improvement Group meeting organised by Wiltshire Council’s area board at Warminster Civic Centre on Wednesday, January 24.

He said: “My proposed question is likely to be: ‘following the serious road traffic accident at the corner of Vicarage Road and Emwell Street on Sunday, October 29 2023, can Wiltshire Council set out its proposals for making Warminster town centre a less hazardous, unsafe and unpleasant environment for pedestrians and local residents?”

Mr Shoult plans to ask for the results of a recent traffic evaluation survey carried out in Silver Street by Wiltshire Council in collaboration with Warminster Town Council in the first two weeks of December last year.

Back in 2020, Mr Shoult, delivered a 72-signature petition to Warminster Council urging it to lobby Wiltshire Council to lower the speed limit and install traffic calming measures.

Wiltshire Council conducted traffic monitoring from October 30 to November 6, 2019 that showed 85 per cent of vehicles passing along Silver Street were not exceeding the speed limit.

Mr Shoult added: “A total of 2,441 drivers were recorded as driving at speeds in excess of the speed limit of 30mph over the seven-day period.

“This represents an average of 348 motorists a day that Wiltshire Council demonstrated, by its evaluation, to be guilty of committing a serious driving offence and in so doing placing at risk the well-being of residents, shoppers, school children and other pedestrians.”

He says the traffic evaluation showed that a total of 40 HGVs travelled along Silver Street during every 24-hour period, with an average of one every 21 minutes.

In August 2020, Wiltshire Council rejected his call, saying that no changes were being planned for speed and HGV weight limits or traffic calming in Silver Street.