Mixed messages create confusion

Highways officers are being asked to decide which of two signs, considered contradictory, at a town centre junction should be removed.

Southwell town councillors claim the signs at the Saracen’s Head junction, between Church Street, Market Place and King Street are misleading.

A member of the council’s highways group, Mrs Beryl Prentice, said it was obvious there were two competing signs as drivers approached the junction from King Street.

“There is a roundabout sign and also a give-way sign and it is not clear which one is actually correct,” she said.

“If you obey the rules of the road with the roundabout sign you give way to the right, but if you obey the give-way sign you also give way to Church Street to the left.”

Mrs Prentice said it was an accident waiting to happen and said she had already seen some near misses at the junction.

Another member of the group, Mr John Robinson, said there had always been two signs at the junction but in the past drivers approached it slowly, so it was not considered to be dangerous.

“For some reason more recently people seem to be shooting out of King Street,” he said.

“People are seeing the roundabout sign and if nobody is coming from the right, they think there is no need to pause.”

Mr Robinson thought the roundabout sign should be removed so drivers on the A612, a major trunk road linking Church Street and Market Place, had priority over King Street, a minor road.

He said the road markings would also need to be changed if one of the signs was taken away.

A spokesman from Nottinghamshire County Council’s highways department said there was no contradiction as the mini roundabout sign had precedence over the give-way sign.

She said the mini roundabout was clearly signed as drivers approached the junction.

“If you refer to the Highway Code you must give way to oncoming traffic to the right,” she said.

“The road junction is properly signed. People must adhere to the sign for the roundabout otherwise they will come out into the pathway of oncoming traffic to the right.”