LESSONS must be learnt after an 11-year-old boy lost his life in Purton, according to parents who are lobbying for a reduction in the speed limit as a result of the crash.

On June 10, popular and sporty Dan Climance lost his life when he collided with a road sweeper in Station Road. A heated parish council meeting on Monday night drew large numbers wanting change in the village.

After being told of budget limitations for the parish who work with an annual pot of £20,000, residents are now setting up a petition to reduce the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph through the centre of Purton.

Councillors are also looking at setting up a working group specifically to deal with the issue of road safety in the village.

Resident Sandy Johnsson has already gathered petition packs which she is hoping to install in local businesses around the village.

“Someone has lost a child, and that was avoidable,” she said. “Hopefully this way, he would not have died in vain, but there was a set of circumstances in place so that an 11-year-old child lost his life.

“The speed limit is currently 30mph and they did recordings of traffic in 2013 and 2014 which indicated the average on that road was 42 miles an hour.

“The other factor is they are building two housing developments at Tadpole Farm and Ridgeway Farm, and that is going to create extra traffic. The pavements are not safe, and in some places simply disappear, so you have lorries passing next to children walking to school.

“I think the village wasn’t designed for this many people coming through. There isn’t the proper parking provision, because they will knock one house down and replace it with four. While this remains the case, children are at risk.”

Kate Grimwood, 82, said of Station Road: “It is a dangerous road as it is, and it is only going to get worse. There is not enough space for parking, so people are forced to park up on the pavement.

“We have a house behind us which has been disused for years, and that land could be used to open up and create more parking.”

Jacqui Lay, Wiltshire councillor for Purton, said several issues have already been raised regarding road safety, but greater emphasis is needed as a result of the incident.

“In reality, they can’t all be provided for,” she said. “We are not highways experts, so we can only say what we see is wrong, and get a professional opinion from an officer.

“Sometimes public perception is that 20 is plenty, but that in itself can cause problems.

“Parish councils are able to raise one-off precepts and if Wiltshire Council are able to contribute alongside the parish council, they could get some more schemes put in place, but often that comes down to availability of man power.

“What we suggested was that we needed to set up a working group just on this subject and get interested people in the village to work with the parish council and go through what can be achieved.

“The parish has been told we are not eligible for a 20mph speed zone because we are a through route. That is not to say people should just roll over an accept that, and there are other things that can be done, but we would need to look at going for a substantive scheme to go the next stage up.

“We need to use the momentum we have now to push forward some ideas for these schemes. We also need to be educating the public more generally about driving, and having people driving 50 or 60 miles an hour in a 30 zone is totally unacceptable."

“We need to be able to learn the lessons from this incident.”