A plan to cut the speed limit at an accident blackspot has been scrapped after police said officers could only “accurately enforce” it in one direction.
Kent County Council axed the scheme to reduce the limit by 10mph on a stretch of Marine Parade on Sheppey despite approving it nine months ago.
The route, which connects Sheerness and Minster along the coast and is used by hundreds of drivers every day, is currently a 40mph zone.
It would have been brought down between the Catamaran Yacht Club and Barton’s Point Coastal Park to 30mph in a bid to stop crashes after two people were killed on the road in five years.
In January last year, a pedestrian in his 20s died after he was hit by a VW Golf near the entrance to Barton’s Point.
Five years earlier, a 77-year-old woman died after a head-on collision between an Age UK minibus and a car near the yacht club.
Then in November, there were two crashes just outside Barton’s Point entrance.
On November 1, two cars were involved in a collision, then on Sunday, November 17, a white Audi and a silver Peugeot crashed.
Despite surveys showing the average speed of vehicles is around 35mph in each direction, the fatalities and crashes swayed KCC officers to approve the proposal in December.
The project received “overwhelming support from residents”, with a petition calling for speed cameras to be installed attracting more than 770 signatures.
However, KCC has now reversed its decision.
This was after police advised the authority that its officers could not “accurately enforce” the new limit in the direction of Barton’s Point.
A mobile police speed camera van currently sits in the new lay-by, which cost the council £18,000 to construct.
The view of the road where the new limit was to be introduced is obstructed by a bend, and the police advised that they could not obtain accurate readings.
However, the force had no objections to the plans going ahead.
Cllr Whiting, who sits on Swale council as a ward member for Queenborough and Halfway, has been campaigning for the reduction.
He says that the decision is “appalling” and that the council should reverse it and go ahead with the scheme.
“I am disappointed with KCC”, he said. “It should have taken the police’s advice and gone forward with the scheme anyway.
“The funding was already agreed and there was overwhelming support not only from Minster Parish Council, Sheerness Town Council, residents, as well as senior members of KCC.
“KCC should change its mind, and hopefully our two new KCC representatives can put pressure on the member for Highways to get it done.”
A KCC spokesman said: “Based on this feedback [from Kent Police], we have decided not to go ahead with the scheme.
“Kent Police will continue to use the van to monitor speeds in the 40mph zone for traffic going in both directions.”
Inspector Ben Brennan, of Kent Police’s Roads Policing Unit, said: “We have advised KCC we have no objections to the proposal.
“Our Safety Camera Manager has completed site visits with KCC colleagues following the construction of a purpose-built parking place for a mobile speed camera van earlier this year.
“It is situated more than 100 metres to the east of the proposed extension in a 40mph zone. We have advised that enforcement of the extended 30mph limit could not be completed accurately from this current parking position.
“Our position remains that we have no objection to an extension of the 30mph and we will continue to complete speed enforcement from the new parking position for traffic travelling in both directions in the 40mph limit.”
It would have cost £6,000 to make the change, with £1,124 coming from Cllr Whiting’s KCC Member Grant funding and was expected to be completed within six months.
There are two Swale council CCTV cameras, one just outside Barton’s Point and the other near The Whitehouse Restaurant in Broadway.
These cameras cannot be used for speed enforcement, as this is a function solely for the police, KCC says.
