A SPEED survey carried out by a youngster as part of her home schooling in Maths is helping to re-boot a safety campaign in a residential road.

Talitha Price lives on the same street as her primary school, Liskeard Hillfort, in Old Road.

While there is a 20mph limit along the entire stretch of the road from the kebab shop on West Street right down to the roundabout at the bottom of Old Road, and beyond into Gypsy Lane, as well as speed bumps, she says that many motorists seem unaware of the restriction.

Talitha and her dad Gareth carried out the survey by observing the speed of more than 50 vehicles at different times of day along a 100m stretch of the street. Using a stopwatch as cars passed two points, their results indicated that the average speed of cars around school drop-off time was 26.8mph – and that only two out of 20 cars were keeping to the limit.

The overall average showed that more than three-quarters of the vehicles observed were breaking the speed limit along the road.

The Price family has become increasingly worried about the speed of traffic, and at the moment it’s even more of a problem, as Talitha, 10, explains: ‘We’ve noticed that a lot of the cars go too fast along our road. Sometimes it is difficult to get the dogs into the car because of this. People need to slow down – people can’t social distance because the cars are going too fast.

‘I think not many people know that it’s 20mph here, because there aren’t any signs.’

Pedestrians meeting people coming the other way along the pavement need to step out into the road in order to keep a two-metre distance – and the narrow path is always tricky to navigate anyway for people with buggies, says Gareth. But with parked cars along both sides of the street, this often means a dangerous step out beyond the parked vehicles and into the central part of the road.

‘I am concerned that with the school re-opening, students and parents will be forced to walk into the speeding traffic to maintain social distancing,’ said Gareth.

‘Whilst there are 20mph signs at either end of the road, these are easily missed and there are none of the usual smaller “repeater” signs. Putting some of these in place would I think be very easy and affordable.’

The problems on Old Road were brought to the attention of the Highways Department last year, but the site was not selected for action by Cornwall Council.

Now, chair of governors at Liskeard Hillfort and town councillor, Julian Smith, has passed Talitha’s report on to Cornwall Councillor Jane Pascoe, who he said has already been working hard to see improvements in the street.

And the call for action is being supported by headteacher at Hillfort Dr Tim Cook, who said he had raised the issue of the 20mph signs in the past.

‘Whilst I am assured that legal requirements are being adhered to, I think it is very easy to miss the signs given where they are situated,’ he said.

‘If a driver misses them, they could already be doing 30mph. I would certainly support the addition of extra signs. Talitha is one of our Head Girls. She is very socially minded and we’re really proud of her.’