For those who have fought to keep Baughurst's rural character, there was a major setback this week as Hampshire Highways deemed in necessary to cover two of the blind bends in Baughurst with brightly coloured 'High Friction' surface, despite objections from residents and members of Baughurst: Traffic Matters.

Whilst I understand the need for such surfaces in an urban environment, on approaches to pedestrian crossings or junctions, their use on rural roads is completely counter productive. It is now possible to travel much faster around the two blind bends, placing all road users in greater danger, especially those who are not cocooned within their steel shells.

I cannot emphasise enough how this approach to road 'safety' is so completely wrong.

We should be addressing the underlying causes of excessive approach speeds into the bends, rather than encouraging people to blindly drive even faster.

For years, Hampshire Highways and other authoritative parties have repeatedly told us that the way to increase safety is to reduce speeds and that there is a direct correlation between the widening of rural roads and the increase in traffic speed. This is not a layman's opinion, this is expert opinion backed up with empirical data.

So what are we doing? We continue to allow our Highways maintenance teams to widen the roads and straighten the bends, then, because the approach speeds are now so high and people are falling off the road, we straighten the bends more and put down High friction surfaces, allowing them to crash even faster. Exactly the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. It simply does not make sense. Traffic casualties and fatalities on rural roads have fallen by a mere 2% per year in the last decade, despite massive improvements in vehicle safety. The reason is simple: it is far too easy to travel too fast in a modern car or van when encouraged to do so. Combining ever more powerful vehicles with wider roads is a recipe for disaster.

The Parish Council, The Baughurst Society, Baughurst: Traffic Matters and all the residents of the parish need to stand with one voice and stop this madness.

Treat the cause, not the symptoms and the argument for high friction surfaces is mute.