Driving home the message of safe driving in Haddenham, Wilburton and Stretham

Police Day of Action. Cllr Bill Hunt at Haddenham Hill in Wilburton (Image: Archant)

Officers were checking for speed around Haddenham, Stretham and Wilburton but also took the opportunity to stop cars for road legal tyres, MOT and insurance.

The day was part of a wider campaign to improve safety in the three villages and to encourage drivers, especially high speed JCB tractors, to drive with consideration, said Councillor Bill Hunt.

“My aim is to get a change of attitude so that it becomes unacceptable to drive too fast through villages, so without having to enforce it, people just don’t want to speed,” he said.

“There’s a house in Wilburton that has been hit twice in the last four years.

“It’s a major concern about traffic coming through these villages too fast.

“I’m particularly concerned about high speed JCB tractors - a car going at 30mph is one thing but for a 30 tonne tractor, with tyres meant for fields, driven by a young driver with not much road experience, it is a very different matter.

“It is a continued campaign to make sure that when motorists come through villages they accept the fact there are people about.”

Measures being put in place include signs on approaches into all three villages urging drivers to proceed with care and gated access in two of the villages to give the feeling of passing into a quieter residential area.

The village action includes:

• Haddenham will have five signs on all approach roads

• Haddenham Parish Council has applied for a pedestrian crossing on the main road near the playing field pavilion

• Wilburton will have four signs and will be gated from the from the Haddenham to Wilburton approach

• Stretham will have four signs and will be gated from the Wicken to Stretham approach

“It’s an agricultural community and everybody realises that we need tractors locally, but it is imperative that they drive safely in our communities,” said Cllr Hunt.