Death warning over gritting
Ron Overland who is campaigning to get the Outwell Rd Stow Bridge gritted before an accident happens www.lynnnews.co.uk/buyaphoto
A RETIRED farmer is sprearheading a campaign to get his local road salted in winter, claiming there will soon be a fatality if nothing is done.
Ron Overland, 79, has been trying for two years to get Outwell Road, which becomes West Head Road, at Stowbridge treated on a regular basis during cold spells.
Mr Overland has lived at New Bridge Farm for 36 years and says, in that time, traffic along Outwell Road has increased five-fold.
There have been numerous accidents involving lorries, vans and cars, Mr Overland being particularly worried about vehicles’ vunerability to a nearby drain.
“It is so dangerous,” he told the Lynn News. “There was a lorry went off the road last year and when the police came they went off the road as well.”
The road is classed C (a local access route) and, at gritting time, is not a priority.
However, following on from a petition, organised by Mr Overland and neighbour Michael Doubleday, Outwell Road was upgraded from having no priority to having a priority three rating so far as winter treatment of roads was concerned.
However, Mr Overland said this, in effect, meant it was only sanded once last year which, in his opinion, was not enough.
He has also brought his concerns to the attention of South West Norfolk MP Elizabeth Truss who tried to arrange a site meeting with the county council.
“There is only nine inches of grass verge from the tarmac and then you are in a drain,” said Mr Overland, adding the road surface had sunk. “We have had three cars smash into telegraph poles. The road is diabolical,” he said, adding: “There is going to be a tragedy. There is going to be a fatality.”
A spokesman for Norfolk County Council said road gritting was very costly and the budget was under extreme pressure adding already, to the end of January, £2.8 million had been spent on treating roads in the county.
“We are sorry that priority three routes can only be treated when resources allow in long periods of sustained freezing weather.
“Although this road provides a short cut that is useful to people going between Outwell and Stowbridge, it is a relatively minor C road and there is an alternative route that is already being treated,” he said, adding it would be “completely unsuitable” as an A or B road, giving it higher priority.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
