COUNCILLORS are hoping to get the go-ahead for a No Entry sign be installed at the junction of Courtland Road and Beech Grove in Wellington to try and prevent a possible tragedy.

Cllr Andrew Govier put forward a proposal at Wellington Town Council’s full council meeting on Monday (March 5) to stop vehicles driving down Courtland Road from the Playing Field car park.

“This has been a hot potato for a number of years,” he said. “It’s a narrow road and I walk that way most mornings and I’ve seen lots of near misses.

“You see it on a daily basis where vehicles are having to reverse out of Courtland Road onto North Street because there just isn’t enough room to get two vehicles passing each other.”

There has long been support – from Beech Grove Primary School and others – for an unofficial one-way system to be implemented in the area with motorists coming down Courtland Road from North Street and then having to go down Beech Grove and into Corams Lane and back out onto the main road.

Cllr Govier said the situation about the possible one-way system had been raised before and it had been met with complaints from people living in Courtland Road.

He said that “people who live there don’t like the idea of having to go the long way round” to get out onto the main road.

But the Mayor, Cllr Marcus Barr, said he was concerned about the possibility of a pedestrian being killed or injured because of a traffic accident in that area.

“We have to do something,” he said. “We wouldn’t be doing our jobs as councillors if we didn’t.”

Cllr Steve Mercer, attending his first town council meeting having won a recent by-election unopposed, said:  “There is evidence to suggest that one-way systems actually increase traffic speeds.”

Cllr Sean Pringle-Kosikowsky said: “We don’t like changing stuff, but change is inevitable and it will improve things down there.”

And Cllr Justin Cole said: “There’s a problem and we have to look at it, but I’m not a traffic management expert.”

But Cllr John Thorne said: “This has been an ongoing issue for a number of years, but I don’t think this is the answer.

“Putting a No Entry sign in will make it confusing for people.  Most of the time during the day there is not a problem.”

It was agreed that further discussions would take place with Somerset Council’s highways department to look at putting a No Entry sign up near the junction of Courtland Road and Beech Grove which would mean motorists parked at the Playing Field car park would not be able to travel down Courtland Road to the main road, but have to take the “long way round.”

But it would come with the proviso that the positioning of the No Entry sign would allow residents in Courtland Road to continue using the road as they have done so previously and go straight out onto the main road.