Village gateway pledge to tackle Blagdon Hill traffic

A VILLAGE gateway scheme is urgently needed to help tackle the danger from speeding traffic in Blagdon Hill.
Despite the traffic problems which have existed for years in Blagdon Hill and Pitminster and which have gradually worsened, the County Council has ignored the situation.
With the ban on lorries using Corfe Hill, more heavy vehicles have been using Pitminster and Blagdon instead, while commuter traffic has increased dramatically.
I am therefore promising to ensure a village gateway can be built for Blagdon Hill to ease the problems and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and horse riders.
A gateway scheme would slow down approaching traffic and make drivers more aware that they are entering a sensitive stretch of road where there will be hazards such as people walking alongside.
It is a comparatively low-cost idea and could have been done a long time ago but the County Council has not had the political will to do it, something which I want to change if elected as County Councillor on June 4.
Each county councillor presently has allowances totalling £20,000 to spend on local projects - so the gateway could easily have been built by now just by using such funds.
Once elected, I will use this budget to ensure Blagdon Hill’s gateway can be constructed.
Do not be fooled by claims that the Conservatives want to abolish these funds, as that is not true.
What we want to do is end the system where councillors can simply use the money to curry favour with voters by giving out grants as if it was their own money and not taxpayers’ money.
The funding would still be available to support such causes, but corporately, so people can see it is County Council money - their money, in fact - which is being spent in a particular way.
Blagdon Hill should have had its gateway scheme years ago to help protect people.
It is a disgrace that the County Council has turned its back on the parish for all these years, even refusing to do anything about the heavy lorries which use the roads since Corfe Hill was closed to them.

• The photograph shows John Thorne (centre), with Blagdon Hill resident and former Deane councillor Chris Robinson (left), who first came up with the village gateway idea years ago, and Ken Maddock, the County Council Conservative group leader, who is supporting the project.