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A FAMILY have won their fight to get the speed limit outside their home reduced - but it took the death of their cat to make it happen.
Three years ago 14-year-old Fuchsia Singleton-Hoare's black and white
cat Satin was mown down by a car on the road outside her house in Patterdown, Chippenham.
It happened in the middle of the night and the first the family knew about it was when a neighbour brought their dead pet to the door the following morning.
The road had a 60mph limit and they had long feared that something like this would happen so they decided to lobby for a reduced limit.
Fuchsia's mother Sarah, 39, a former Gazette reporter and now a successful children's writer, wrote to the then county councillor Paul Fox and he notified the relevant department.
This week, just when everyone thought it had been forgotten about, a permanent memorial to Satin appeared on Melksham Road outside the house in Patterdown - a 40mph speed limit sign.
advertisementAccording to Wiltshire County Council, the signs were not put up specifically because of Satin's death but because it had reviewed the limit and deemed it to be too fast for a road with houses on it.
Hardenhuish pupil Fuchsia is happy with the result. She said: "We got Satin when she was a kitten and she was part of the family. My sister Poppy, mum and dad, and me were very upset when she was run over.
"People have slowed down on the road outside our house since the signs went up which is good for the pets around here and it's much quieter too."
Ms Singleton said: "The road had a 60mph limit, so we decided to lobby for a reduced limit,
in memory of Satin and for the sake of the many rabbits and hedgehogs getting squished on our road - not to mention our own safety.
"We wrote to our local councillor and requested the change and the sign and several others were put up three years later.
"Of course I cannot say how much our letter and lobbying were the cause of this decision, but it does go to show that it is always worth a try."
I have had enough.... time to go play splat the cat
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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV
Snap Unhappy“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code
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