Reader's letter: Rat run Horsham road needs speed cameras before a serious accident happens

We live in a rural area which, in many cases, is served by a network of country lanes and narrow roads which were never designed for 21st century traffic – instead they serviced farms or local iron ore industries for example.

They were built for horse drawn traffic – not Audis, huge lorries and SUVs.

They were built at a time when houses were not crammed in every space and there was no wish to hurtle along at speeds which disregard anyone but self.

Thus we now have a completely different usage reality but with the same country roads.

We have a situation where councils say there’s no point in putting in 30mph signs as most totally ignore them and a police force that admits it has no chance whatsoever of ever controlling the situation.

Speeding, reckless, careless drivers just get away with it while local people suffer the ruination of their lifestyle and local wildlife become mere flotsam.

In order to get change it needs not just one death but several, for the patently obvious problem to even get talked about.

So what might solve this problem? We cannot change selfish drivers. We cannot get all the hundreds of extra people moving into the district to stop using country lanes as rat run race tracks.

I think the Tower Hill straight is a prime example of the problem.

No doubt readers will have their own examples but I know this road well as I have lived here for over 40 years.

This road was never designed as a feeder for a large school, a large sports centre, as access to Barns Green and Southwater or for a convenient drive in and out of Horsham for anyone coming in from the Billingshurst road.

The problem was only made worse by the totally irrational blockage and diversion of the previously perfectly good road past Tesco.

More building at the back end of Southwater only increases traffic using Tower Hill as a rat run.

There is no footpath and the straight is the obvious place for drivers to ‘make-up’ time which they are forced to lose on the hill or bends – all narrow and with adverse camber.

Recently an interested third party paid for the installation of 30mph signs along the road – which are totally ignored by over 90 per cent of drivers. Cars pass my mid straight window at speeds exceeding 50mph.

I would like to suggest that Tower Hill straight (along with other sections of inhabited roads that locals can make a good case for) should be controlled by an average speed limit camera system which operates between the two bends at either end of the straight.

These cameras are not unsightly, they do not require road markings or speed humps or any changes other than camera installation and maintenance.

They would certainly pay for themselves within a week and excess funds raised could be used to install other local community road improvements.

There is a similar system in Charlton village in Surrey and I think this approach is definitely worth at least a trial in Tower Hill.

We cannot wait for another accident or injury let alone any more loss of quality of life for residents before we admit there is a problem which currently cannot be managed.

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