Road petition in fight to cut pony death toll (From Bournemouth Echo)

Road petition in fight to cut pony death toll

4:00pm Thursday 25th June 2009 in

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A GROUP campaigning for traffic calming on the outskirts of Brockenhurst in a bid to cut the animal accident rate has handed a petition in to the area’s top police officer.

A total of 1,120 people signed the petition by South Weirs Action Group for Safety (Swags) during one day in Brookley Road, Brockenhurst, the village’s high street.

The Swags campaign focuses on Burley Road, South Weirs where there have been 40 ponies killed or injured in accidents in the past five years.

Swags member Ann Fannin said: “The next step forward will be to contact the parish council, Cllr Thornber, representatives of Hampshire Highways and the Commoners’ Defence Association, all of whom have expressed their support, to get our heads together for some real action on local traffic calming.

“The chief inspector spoke of his willingness to attend a meeting and agreed with us that our local campaign, if successful, could well become a model for others to work with in their own areas.

“Whilst we as a group are very willing to engage in all the necessary background work, we are reluctant to be sucked into a merry-go-round of more and more meetings.

“We are committed to our policy of regular high profile public actions and will not rest until something positive is done to reduce accidents locally. We also support the Verderers’ recent call for a blanket 30mph limit on all unfenced forest roads.”

Chief Insp Cooper gave the petition the “thumbs-up” when the action group presented the petition at Lyndhurst police station.

Mr Cooper said: “Traffic speed and animal awareness is high on the police agenda and data from recent questionnaires highlights public anxiety over the issue.

“We regularly run a ‘Stay Under 40’ roadside campaign, where motorists exceeding the 40 mph speed limit are stopped and reminded about the consequences of speeding on forest roads.

“These operations are run periodically at animal accident hotspots across the forest and ironically, virtually all offenders are from the forest area.”