VIDEO: Bikers speeding through Lower Beeding is ‘unacceptable’

Graham Miller, a Lower Beeding parish councillor who lives in Brighton Road, thinks that because of roadworks on the A23 and speed cameras on the A24, bikers are using his road as a route to the coast on Sundays.

He thought the reason highways and police had not acted was that there had not been any recent serious accidents on their stretch of road along the A281.

Mr Miller explained: “Pedestrians will not use the paths and that’s the only reason there are no fatalities.”

He said: “It’s a huge problem Sunday mornings with 200-300 bikes.

“We are still entitled to quality of life and that has been seriously affected by these types of vehicles.”

He added: “I work from home so I’m there every morning and Saturday and Sunday are the worst.

“It’s the motorbikes because of the speed and the noise that they make.”

Mr Miller said some bikes had been clocked at more than 80 mph and it was not just the properties on the road that were affected.

Many of the houses in his area were owned by families, with the noise starting at first light with bikes able to be heard from a mile away.

Fellow parish councillor Caroline Charman, who lives in nearby Mill Lane, called the speeding in the village ‘unacceptable’ and thought the noise bikers made while driving through Lower Beeding was ‘unnecessary’.

“I think it’s the danger, not just the noise, but also overtaking cars,” she said.

She felt that little action could be taken unless there was a fatality on the road, and residents did not want to see that happen.

Parish councillor Gevin White launched a road safety campaign in Lower Beeding last month with a specific focus on the safety of children.

Speeding bikers in Brighton Road is just one of several issues facing the village, with safety concerns in Leechpond Hill, Sandygate Lane, and Handcross Road.

Mr Miller added: “We’ve got a 40 mph road that runs through our village.

“If that was in a town that would without a doubt be a 20 or 30 mph zone.”

He said that their primary aim was to get a 10 mph reduction throughout the village and have it properly enforced by police, with just one speed camera currently on the road.

“There’s no point putting signs up there, because they’re not doing the limit now.

“It needs to be properly enforced,” he explained.