A few days ago a resident contacted me to ask what the authorities had done to address reports of drivers breaking the speed limit along the Coast Road in Blackhall Colliery and Blackhall Rocks. As regular readers of these pages will know road safety in our villages is one of our main priorities - and also an issue that’s almost impossible to limit without the goodwill of the minority of drivers who insist on driving through our community without consideration for the safety of its residents.
As for the Blackhall area in particular, a couple of years ago I asked the police to carry out a series of speed surveys at several points along the A1086 from the Welfare Park at one end to Crimdon at the other. The outcome of the surveys was inconclusive but I asked for measures to be installed at certain locations anyway in the hope of assuring residents that the authorities were taking this issue seriously.
Ultimately there are certain characteristics about the Coast Road/Middle Street between Blackhall Colliery and Crimdon meaning there are fairly strict limitations on the amount and type of traffic-calming measures the authorities can consider - and this is where the good intentions of drivers comes into the equation. Until the few inconsiderate drivers who persist in exceeding the speed limit come to accept the potential consequences of their actions the problem is likely to persist. With this in mind please report any persistent incidents of dangerous driving to the police at: peterlee@durham.pnn.police.uk
I published the most recent details on my blog at the time but if there are any other measures you would like the authorities to consider drop me a line please at the email address shown in the strap line above and I’ll forward your comments direct to the police for their attention.
Please see background details in the articles published in this site on
Sunday 14 November 2020 https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2020/11/speed-visor-programme-for-blackhall.html and
Friday 20 August 2021 https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2021/08/speed-visor-installed-at-blackhall-rocks.html
