West Fife: Carnock to become a 20mph zone after two 'near misses'

Councillor Sam Steele said two children were almost "run over" in separate incidents on Main Street and raised an urgent motion at a Fife Council meeting in November.

Action to improve road safety has now been agreed which will effectively see all of the village become a 20mph zone.

At the South and West Fife area committee last week, Cllr Steele said she was "absolutely delighted" and added: "This means a huge amount to the residents of Carnock, especially parents who have children at the primary school."

However, the work won't be carried out at the same time as the traffic lights upgrade and the new pedestrian crossing at the school, which are due in the summer.

If there are no objections, the 20mph limit is likely to be implemented in around six months' time.

Cllr Steele had previously told the Press that a "five-year-old boy nearly got run over" on his way to school with his family.

Weeks later she was informed of a similar incident where a car "just missed" an older child.

She added: "The speed that cars are coming down into Carnock, very few are doing 30mph or under so, while it was a near miss, it could easily have been much worse.

"It is really concerning. A car hitting a child at 30mph would be catastrophic.

"We're all well aware of previous incidents happening in other parts of Fife and we don't want anything like that to be repeated."

Councillors were told Carnock had to be assessed against Scottish Government criteria to identify 30mph roads that could be reduced to 20mph.

Traffic management consultant Lesley Craig said the "middle section" of Main Road qualified for a speed reduction, as it's within a 100m walk of the school.

She added that, as 20mph zones must be a minimum of 600m long, it was proposed to extend the speed reduction to the outskirts of the village and the existing 40mph gateways.

The committee heard that work to promote and implement the traffic regulation order will cost £6,000.