West berkshire Council won’t be changing Thatcham’s ‘inconvenient’ speed bumps

West Berkshire Council has responded to complaints of inconvenient speed bumps in Thatcham.

The district council has no plans to make changes to the structures on Station Road despite claims that they are dangerous.

The bumps are of rubber material and form square shapes – often called speed cushions – in the centre of each directional lane.

They replaced older and ineffectual speed cushions that came before them on this stretch of road between The Moors and Pipers Lane.

Their square shape allows larger vehicles to straddle them without slowing down.

It also ensures that harm doesn’t come to emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire engines, that will be able to travel over them at normal speed.

However, some Thatcham residents have said these speed cushions are too steep and have sharp corners, which can result in them being “thrown about” in their vehicles.

Some say that when vehicles are parked on the side of the road, they cannot drive over the bump like they normally would and one side of their vehicle is forced to drive over it.

In a Thatcham Town Council meeting councillor Justin Pemberton (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said the solution would be to change the shape of the bumps.

Councillor Simon Pike (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) endorsed this and concluded that the issue be raised with West Berkshire Council with a change of shape suggested.

The town council asked for WBC to investigate this further and make changes to the shape that are ‘less aggressive in design’.

But the district council has come back and said no changes will be made.

A WBC spokesperson told the town council: “The previous speed cushions had suffered significant structural failures over time, resulting in a substandard and ineffectual traffic calming feature.

“In spite of the perception of the replacement cushions, they are prefabricated off site and comply with current Department for Transport specifications for size, width and height and cannot be adjusted.

“We have undertaken a number of site inspections following the installation of the cushions to ensure all the cushions have been installed correctly.

“There are currently no plans to make any changes to the existing speed cushions.”