Spaniard’s Bay council to brainstorm speeding problem

By Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Olivia Bradbury

Spaniard’s Bay council recently gave an update on responses from Northern Cove Pond Road residents regarding its efforts at traffic calming.

Speeding became an issue on the road after it was opened all the way recently to through traffic.

Council sent 16 letters to residents of the road this past summer asking if they were in favour of speed bumps. As of council’s September public meeting, only eight responses had been received. Mayor Tammy Oliver invited council members to share their comments.

“The barricades should be put right back where they were before they were removed,” said Councillor Debbie Newman.

“The decision was to reopen that road, and I’m not going back on that,” said councillor Darlene Stamp. “But the thing is, it was a no thoroughfare road.”

Stamp pointed out the road had been opened to accommodate winter conditions and plowing.

“A council should never, ever base the decision based on that because it’s no through traffic and you’re encouraging traffic to go through,” said Stamp. “And you’re saying 80 per cent of the people are speeding on a road that we’ve already deemed is dangerous.”

Stamp said she felt there was a bigger issue at hand and would prefer if all council members were present to discuss it. Councillors Terry Sheppard and Sherry Lundrigan were absent, while councillor Darren Smith was sitting in via phone call.

Stamp said the public would likely be evenly split on the issue. “It’s a choice, no matter what way you take, there’s going to be a sector of polling that are not going to agree,” she said. “But at the end of the day it boils down to safety.”

Mayor Tammy Oliver said she was in favour of closing the road when the initial decision was made. As she was campaigning last election, however, most Northern Cove Pond Road residents said they wanted the road reopened.

“So, we certainly have two sides of the spectrum,” said Oliver. “We have multiple roads that are small and narrow in town. It’s a hard decision that council got to decipher because there’s a lot of people for it and a lot of people against.”

Stamp asked whether the police can do anything to deter speeding.

Later, Town clerk Vanessa Higgins said she could contact the RCMP with the statistics the Town has collected from its speed monitors on Northern Cove Pond Road.

Oliver suggested contacting neighbouring communities who have similar traffic-calming policies to gauge how they have made out.

Ultimately, council agreed to table the topic for now with the intention of arranging a brainstorming session down the road.