A resident who lives on the the road known to be Swindon’s 'most polluted' is concerned about speeding traffic. Daphne Dingle, 84, says she sees cars regularly speeding on Kingshill Road outside her house. She has not seen police carry out speed checks on the road in years despite children from three nearby schools crossing the road with no crossing.
(Image: Newsquest) She said: “How we haven’t had a really bad accident, I don’t know. The fact the children don’t get killed, I am amazed. “I almost want to say I wish there was a bad accident, but I do not want anybody to get hurt.
” The road is limited to 30 miles per hour, but Daphne says cars are “constantly” breaking that. (Image: Newsquest) “I would almost guarantee that every other car, at least, is going over 30”, she said. There is no crossing at the bottom of Kingshill Road, meaning that children from the three nearby schools must cross the road unaided.
She remembers that Wiltshire Police used to carry out occasional speed checks on the road, hiding in her bushes at the bottom of the hill. “It did deter the traffic: they used to hesitate because there might be a policeman there”, Daphne believes. Speed checks may not be being carried out on the road because nobody has reported the issue.
(Image: Dave Cox) A Wiltshire Police spokesperson advised: “To understand the issues the resident and the community face, we would encourage the following course of action – seek a traffic survey (TS) through your ward councillor via the SBC web page. “On completion of the traffic survey, it’ll be assessed against the national criteria. “Once this has been completed, the ward and council can decide what is needed – this may be a speed limit reduction/ some traffic calming measures.
“If the result is eligible for speed education or police enforcement, our civilian enforcement officers will deploy and conduct checks in the area.” Kingshill Road was recently in the Advertiser as the Swindon Borough Council is considering banning HGVs from it. It follows high levels of nitrogen oxide being detected there in 2018 and Kingshill being declared an Air Quality Management Area.
The pollution is thought to be due to factors such as exhaust emissions from large vehicles and the steep incline with houses and trees on either side trapping the air. The most recent survey conducted by the council suggests that an average of 120 HGV journeys per day would be affected by the proposed weight limit..
