West Tamar Council votes to conduct speed limit review

The motion was put forward by Councillor Josh Manticas, who said that he and several other councillors had received feedback and concerns from the community about speed limits and pedestrian safety.

Cr Manticas told The Examiner that a critical area that residents were concerned about was the shops in Exeter and that some residents have persistently asked for pedestrian safety to be addressed in this area.

One of these residents is Cheryl Swan, who has lived in the area since 1989 and whose son died 5 years ago on the West Tamar Highway.

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Ms Swan is now an advocate for road safety.

"That's why I'm so committed to doing something about this. I don't want someone else to go through this," she said.

She's concerned that the roads in the area are not suited to the type of traffic that frequent them.

There is no pedestrian or zebra crossing on the West Tamar Highway in Exeter which is narrower than Charles Street near the Launceston General Hospital, she said.

The road has businesses on both sides and is quite congested, she said.

Ms Swan said she recently had to help an elderly woman with a full shopping trolley cross the road because she couldn't see past the parked cars.

Ms Swan is also advocating for the speed limit in the area to be brought from 50km/hr to 40km/hr.

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Cr Manticas said the review was "timely" given a number of development projects taking place in the Council such as Gravelley Beach master plan.

Councillor Julie Sladden agreed, saying that the municipality had seen a lot of growth over the years.

"So this will help us sort of strategically plan any changes that need to happen and potentially identify black spots or additional road safety issues so that we might prevent any harm or adverse outcomes to our community."

Final authority for speed limit changes lies with the State Government's transport commissioner. The council will undertake a review that will be presented to the commissioner for consideration.

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Councillors discussed having to get the state government on board with mayor Christina Holmdahl said it was "disappointing" that the Council had to "just about turn ourselves inside-out" to convince the Department of State Growth.

"The hoops you have to jump through, I think, are unreasonable and in the meantime the community that's trying to get the speed limit reduced is still dealing with the issues of speeding and unsafe driving and everything else."

"So I do hope that we can work with the government to ensure that these matters are addressed."

Ms Swan said that there was too much acceptance of road crashes by the public and what was needed was a change in rhetoric. It's not "road safety" but "people safety," she said.

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