Moray MSP Richard Lochhead is asking Moray Council to re-do speed checks on Mannachie Road Forres

A local politician is requesting that Moray Council re-completes speeding tests on a road residents claim an ever increasing number of motorists break the speed limit on.

Moray MSP, Richard Lochhead, has agreed to contact the local authority on behalf of Mannachie Rise Residents Association (MRRA), to request safety measures are introduced on Mannachie Road before a potential accident occurs.

Mr Lochhead said: “Following contact from a constituent last year to highlight concerns about the speed of traffic on Mannachie Road, I raised this with Moray Council.

“The council carried out a survey between May 24 and June 1 which found that the average speed of traffic was 25.5mph. Therefore the council didn’t see a need for traffic calming measures.

“However, I understand that SGN were carrying out gas works in the area which involved the use of traffic lights. This may have skewed the results of the survey so I am asking that they consider carrying out a fresh survey.”

Resident, Jimmy Stephen, moved to Mannachie Road nearly 30 years ago.

He said: “At that time, the level of traffic was low, so acceptable for the road. With the Springfield development further up the road, the volume of traffic has increased dramatically.

“A lot of cars exceed the 30mph limit - some I would estimate to be travelling at at least 50mph. There are young children living here and I dread to think what would happen if one of them ran in front of one of those vehicles.”

He added: “The problem is only going to get worse as planning permission is granted for even more houses to be built. The road needs to be a 20mph limit or have speed bumps in place.”

A Moray Council spokesperson claimed that traffic data gathered over a year has shown no evidence of excessive speeds on Mannachie Road.

She finished: “We will continue to monitor road safety in this area.

“In terms of the nature of the information used, we have access to anonymised vehicle speed data gathered from a range of GPS sources including in-car systems, mobile apps (such as Google maps) and stand-alone devices like satnavs. This approach provides robust information on the speed of traffic using the road over long periods of time.

“If your constituents witness bad driving behaviour, we encourage them to report it to Police Scotland with as much information as possible, including registration numbers, dates and time, etc. This will allow them to carry out a more targeted approach to enforcement.”