Speed humps axed at last

Some of Great Wyrley's speed humps are finally to be removed after years of protests from villagers that there were too many.

Workers will start removing 10 of the village's 146 speed humps next week and a further £15,000 of work will be carried out to swap another 10 humps for cushions.

It is expected to take a fortnight to complete the work and letters will be sent to people living in the affected streets over coming days.

The extra work to swap 10 humps for cushions will be paid for using money given to district councillors Kath Perry and Mike Lawrence under the Local Member Initiative scheme to distribute in the community.

Councillor Perry said: "This is not something which has happened overnight, it is something which has been looked at carefully over the last 18 months.

"The humps were very controversial among villagers and a lot of people did not want them.

"We were able to ask for a full review of the situation and it found humps had been put in places there had not been any accidents and there had been none there since, so we had to really ask what the point of them being there was."

Staffordshire County Council bosses insisted the work would be done as carefully as possible to minimise disruption but said roads would need resurfacing once cushions had been cut out.

Humps were installed as part of a £180,000 county council project to make the main routes to schools safer.

In November, a hump in Tower View Road was named the worst in Britain in a poll by Continental Tyres. The hump, at a flooding spot, was often so submerged by water it caught out drivers and damaged cars. It is not yet known if this hump is to be axed.