Speed hump debate: Driving down the middle of the road into Atherstone town centre is 'still reinforcing the reason for them being there'

Fed-up motorists in Atherstone who "get the hump" by swerving round traffic calming measures are inadvertently doing road safety a huge favour, Nub News has learned.

The 'sleeping policemen' on Witherley Road have sparked controversy for almost a decade and drivers are continuing to avoid them by steering their vehicles down the middle of the split bumps.

Attempts by campaigners to remove them, on the grounds they were the wrong dimensions, have been countered by county highways and private consultants carrying out exhaustive tests to determine they are the right size.

Short-term surveillance by Atherstone Nub News revealed nearly three quarters of motorists heading into the town centre are deliberating driving for the gap between the speed bumps.

Drivers leaving Atherstone seem more respectful of the obstacles while the effect of traffic passing in opposite directions outside the Queen Elizabeth Academy still does not kerb the practice altogether.

Atherstone County Councillor Neil Dirveiks told Nub News that the 'hated' road cushions – blamed for ruining suspensions and breaking exhausts on vehicles – "are clearly doing their job as no one has been knocked over by a speeding motorist in recent years".

He added: "If we were to remove them and an accident occurred, then the people would be screaming: Why has the county council taken away the safety measures."

The town's representative on Warwickshire County Council added: "People who speed down the middle of the humps are increasing the risk of an accident."

But he said there was a clear value to road safety in retaining the speed bumps along the stretch of Witherley Road up to the junction with North Street.

"But if people go down the middle of the road to avoid the humps and do it slowly, then it is reinforcing the reason for them being there," he added.

ï¬ Have you got a view on the Witherley Road speed humps or traffic calming measures in general? Let us have your opinion or drop editor Nick Hudson an email to #SaturdaySoapbox at [email protected]