Councillor wants to remove speed bumps from Cornwall's roads because they're a 'danger'
The cabinet member for transport says he does not agree with the traffic calming measures
The Cornwall councillor responsible for transport has said he does not agree with speed bumps and would like to see them removed from Cornwall’s streets.
Philip Desmonde, Cabinet member for transport, was asked whether claims that he did not support speed bumps was just a rumour.
Speed bumps and traffic calming measures are installed on roads in a bid to reduce the speed of traffic and can be found located outside schools.
The Conservative councillor replied: “The issue of speed bumps, I could call them all sorts of names. My personal inclination is to remove them.
“I consider them to be a danger to the health of those who live and work in the vicinity of these pieces of hardware in the infrastructure.”
Cllr Desmonde said that he was concerned about the environmental impact of speed bumps saying that it causes pollution and threatens people’s health.
He added: “They have been introduced to control speed, quite laudably, but they do the opposite in relation to the health of people.”
Cllr Desmonde said that in his portfolio area he wanted to focus on connectivity and quality of life and said that he wanted to have healthy streets and living streets which will benefit people.
He added: “I want to do this by looking at measures that involve the use of signage and cameras and enforcement rather than using physical features on the landscape.”
Cllr Mike Thomas, who asked the original question, said that while that might be Cllr Desmonde’s personal view would he be listening to the council’s highways officers and paying attention to them if they say that speed bumps are needed in a particular area.
Cllr Desmonde replied simply “no” and said that he would not be listening to highways officers.
He added: “A highways officer is not the right person to make a judgement call on this at all.”
Cllr Desmonde said that it needed to be looked at “in the round” and needed advice from environmentalists and scientists as well.
He added: “A highways officer is not going to dictate to me what will be a policy. There are so many diverging views and experts who have different views.”