Forfar residents win bid for 20mph speed limit

Forfar campaigners have won their bid for a 20mph speed limit to be introduced in an Angus hamlet to cut the growing problem of speeding drivers.

The majority of residents living in Gowanbank on the outskirts of the town put their names to a petition prompted by accident fears on the B9113 Montrose road.

However, an accompanying roads department report based on a traffic survey suggested the Angus hamlet does not have a speeding problem.

Records show there was only one recorded accident on that stretch of the B9113 since 2019.

The petition was presented to councillors at a communities committee on Tuesday.

The bid to ramp up traffic measures has been led by local resident Ian Nimmo White, who put pressure on councillors to back the proposals.

And he said claims a reduction from 30mph would make no difference were “absolute nonsense”.

“We don’t imagine this speeding”, Mr White said.

“It takes place every day, all day and it takes place regularly. We know what’s going past our houses.”

Council officers had suggested that councillors should hold off on making a decision until an Angus-wide speed limit strategy review is completed.

It comes on the back of Scottish Government plans which could bring a much wider implementation of 20mph limits.

But Independent councillor Ian McLaren put forward an amendment asking committee members to back the campaigners’ bid for a 20mph limit.

The Forfar representative said that a speed reduction in Gowanbank would be consistent with road speeds in other nearby Angus villages.

SNP councillor Councillor Lloyd Melville added: “Fifty-one of a possible 57 residents signed the petition.

“That’s as an emphatic demand from the residents as you can probably get.”

Councillors voted to back the reduction by 11 votes to five.