‘Serious consideration’ is being given to a plea by Moray villagers for a speed limit reduction through their community straddling the A96.
Brodie residents gathered at the Dyke Village Hall on Wednesday evening to meet with representatives from Transport Scotland and Bear Scotland to discuss their long-running campaign to have the speed limit reduced from 50mph to 40mph.
A formal request to cut the limit was firmly rejected in 2013 when Transport Scotland refused to review the speed, saying only that their investigation concluded that the character of the road deemed a 50mph limit as “appropriate and consistent with similar sections on the trunk road network”.
However, on hearing the arguments from residents that accidents had happened in the village that they believed were directly connected with the speed of vehicles, the road officials undertook to give “serious consideration” to an examination of ways the road could be made safer.
Local police inspector Paul McCruden attending the meeting and handed over a report on the hazards faced along the route. This included a fatality in 2012 when a 92-year-old visitor from Norway was killed when trying to cross the A96 in the village.
The meeting had been organised by the Dyke Landward Community Council, with community councillor Carol Shaw saying that the event was a step forward.
She said: “The meeting went very well – they listened to everything everyone had to say and they realised the strength of feeling about the road.
“In the past we’ve not been able to get anyone from the roads authorities to answer our letters – so having representatives come and listen to what we have to say is an achievement in itself.”