Pirton’s sad history of trying to improve Road Safety

Pirton is a small village in a rural area about four miles from Hitchin, with a road infrastructure dating from the 1800s and before. Recent developments have increased house numbers by 30% with no change to existing roads. I will set out below the sad saga which has unfolded over the last ten years.

We began efforts to improve road safety by having a 20mph zone in 2011. By December 2017 the Parish Council was still asking Herts County Council for progress on our requests. In February 2018, work began on speed and volume data collection in the village and was completed in November 2018 with the results finally being presented to Pirton in January 2020. All the roads measured were below 24mph except for one which was 26-28mph. I understand that HCC proposed to spend around £40K on speed bumps on this one short road. These speed bumps are unwanted and our HCC Councillor has no budget for them until 2022-2023.

What a monumental waste of time and money. How can HCC say that they are concerned about the safety of roads in our village?

Marilyn Parkin