CALLS are being made for speed checks in Esperley after one of only two benches in the hamlet was flattened in a car crash.
People in the village say reduced traffic because of Covid-19 restrictions has led to motorists flying through at up to 70mph.
Sometime on Thursday night a car travelling through Esperley came off the road and levelled the seat.
Resident John Hartley noticed the damage while walking his dog on Friday morning. He said: “It is 30mph but they come down at 70mph. It is not right – someone is going to get killed. I don’t know when it [the bench] will be replaced – it took us nearly a year to get that one.”
Ironically, members of Cockfield Parish Council had visited Esperley the day before the crash in response to complaints about speeding and had noticed the seat was in need of maintenance.
Cllr Neville Singleton said: “In this last fortnight we have had a lot of complaints about cars flying through here. I came down yesterday – there was a car passed me and he must have been doing 60mph. It is because the roads are quiet, like everywhere, so they use it as a race track.
“I am going to be on to the police to get some speed checks in here.”
He added that while visiting the site he had seen the condition of the seat and had plans to ask the parish’s maintenance man to oil it. Now, he said, the parish council would see about having it replaced.
He said: “We put it in about two-and-a-half years ago because the other one was dropping to bits. It gets used a lot.”
Mr Hartley’s wife Pam, said the original seat had been installed by former county councillor and Durham mayor Pauline Charlton.
She called on the parish council to include a plaque on the replacement seat to recognise the late Cllr Charlton’s contribution to Esperley.
