What I found in Rutland

After a fantastic bacon sandwich in The Larder, Oakham, I had a look at Braunstone Road where a resident reported frequent speeding traffic. I later raised this with the local police commander who promised to see if the level of speeding warranted a regular speed check and enforcement programme.

Another person was worried about speeding in Thistleton Road in Market Overton. While I did not have time to visit, I know the road well myself and now that a minority of motorists can go rather fast. Again, the police will be looking into this.

I headed north up the Ashwell Road to find the small housing estate at the crossroads with Langham Lane to meet with Cllr Kiloran Heckels. She was talking to local residents about an issue relating mostly to planning regulations, though there was a police angle.

Cllr Heckels and I then drove to Whitwell to meet with Beryl Jones of the parish council. The problem here was road safety on the A606 as it thunders down a hill into the village. The corner at the bottom of the hill is a particular concern, but the general speeding of traffic is a concern. The shaking experienced by some houses – which lack the firm foundations of modern houses – caused by heavy vehicles hitting the uneven road surface at speed was?worry.

We discussed several ideas, some of which lei within the control of the Rutland County Council, but I promised to chase up those aspects that are down to the police.

I found out later that the “speed van” has visited the site ten times in 2023 so far, and no doubt other visits will take place. Average speed cameras might help, but that is an issue for the County Council, not for the police.

I then headed south of Rutland Water to meet Cllr Matt Ferin and Cllr Karen Payne at the library in the High Street. We had a wide ranging conversation about various issues in the ward that they represent. In Ketton there are concerns about speeding and inconsiderate driving on the A6121 through the village. This situation may get worse due to the 215 new houses being built in the village on three new sites, which all open on to High Street.

Also adding to the problems are parents from nearby villages who drop their children off at Ketton School. There are simply not enough parking places. They end up parking on yellow lines, block driveways and side roads, and dangerously narrow the main road in the village centre.

But the real dangers lie on the long straight stretch of the main road outside of the village – there was another fatality there only a few weeks ago. Some thought that the speed camera van had not been present as much recently as in the past. I promised to find out. The answer was that the “speed van” had paid 14 visits to the Ketton area, spread across 4 different locations with an average visit time of 90 minutes.

Further east at Tinwell, the two councillors told me, there was a dangerous junction between the A6121 and Casterton Lane. “Traffic comes off the A1, then races down Casterton Lane and does not slow down until it hits the village, by then it is too late.”

Further south, where the A47 runs close to the Northamptonshire border through Glaston and Morcott many residents are worried that their area does not get the attention it deserves as it falls between the two counties. I promised to look into this. I went to the layby where can be found the Two Flags Café. I spent a bit of time watching the traffic zipping past before I went in to speak to the café owner. He agreed that there are some vehicles that flash past at high speeds. But he was impressed by the action taken by the police. “There is a specially built mound for the speed van just west of here,” he reported. “And the van is often there. And there’s another spot to the east where it is seen, but maybe not as often. Overall I think the police are on top of the problem, though you’ll never stop speeding altogether on a road like this.”

I followed this up as well and found that the police are, indeed, on the case with frequent visits to enforce the speed limits.

The Ketton area has also experienced some specifically rural crimes, such as hare-coursing, tractor theft and the like. I promised to give the two councillors the contact details for the Rurual Policing Unit who have been doing so much good work in this area.

I then went to Casterton College. I am a member of the Last Post Association in Ypres, Belgium. Every night at dusk the association members close the main road through the Menin Gate to hold a ceremony at which they sound the Last Post in memory of the tens of thousands of men who died defending the trenches around Ypres from the Germans in the First World War. A group of Year 9 pupils is going to Ypres and will be attending the Last Post Ceremony. I gave them a poppy to lay in memory of my Great Uncle Edward, who was killed at Ypres. I also gave them several copies of a book about war memorials that I wrote a few years ago.

On to Uppingham to meet with Cllr Lucy Stephenson. She showed me around Todds Piece. There has been an outbreak of anti social behaviour recently. The skate park has been daubed with graffiti. More seriously glass bottles have been smashed and the shards thrown around the sensory garden. There have also been reports of suspicious activity by cars on Gainsborough Road beside Todds Piece. Perhaps there is drug dealing taking place.

The local police beat team have been made aware of these issues and are currently looking at CCTV footage to try to identify suspects. If they can be identified then they will be dealt with in the usual fashion.

In Ayston Road, the Harley Davidson dealership is the unwitting focus of some poor behaviour. On days when large numbers of motorbikes congregate, they can be parked on pavements, on yellow lines and across dropped kerbs. This happens several times a year, especially on Sundays when the weather is good. One resident counted over 150 bikes parked around the shop one Sunday last year.

The residents asked if police could visit on particularly busy days to move the bikes from places where it was dangerous for them to park. Also to check exhausts to see if they have been illegally modified. In addition to the bad parking, there are concerns that some bikes might have been illegally modified to make them louder and deafening. The motorbikes are blamed for speeding on the A47 north of the town.

I raised all these issues with the local police commander who promised that visits would be made by the beat team.?

I then visited Tugby in Leicestershire to talk to Cllr Gail Squire, Chair of the parish council. The problem here was the very long layby off the A47 to the east of the village. This used to be part of the main road, but it had a dangerous corner so the modern road cuts it off. Today the layby is secluded and cannot be seen from the main road due to trees and undergrowth. This attracts undesirable behaviour, such a drug drop offs and deals. The situation is made worse by the fact that the local junior school uses an adjacent patch of woodland as an outside classroom in the summer. While we were there a car followed a van into the layby. They stopped a hundred yards away from us and sat there with their engines idling for 3 or 4 minutes before driving off. Most suspicious.

The parish councillors wondered if the layby could be blocked off from the road to be impassable by vehicles.

This is a complex issue that would involve several different agencies, not just the police. I’ve started to try to get the ball rolling, so we will see what happens here.

I then returned to Uppingham to do an interview with Rob from Rutland and Stamford Sound.

It was then off to Preston to meet Cllr Giles Clifton and some local residents. After a discussion about traffic speeding on the A6003, apparently being dealt with Robyn Green at the county council, we moved to Cross Lane where there is a 7.5 tonne weight limit to stop large lorries going down this narrow lane. Unfortunately some lorry drivers ignore the signs and end up getting stuck. One lorry ended up mounting the grass verge and smashed the steps leading to the front door of a house built in 1631.

It turns out that there has been a technical issue around the ability of the police to enforce the restrictions around Preston. These have now been sorted out and the police will now be visiting the area to enforce the rules

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