A TEMPORARY 40mph limit imposed on part of the Wessex Way will be extended for a further six months.

The decision has dismayed more than 9,000 Facebook protestors and Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns, who claims the lower speed limit is “bonkers”.

Mr Burns said he had been contacted by hundreds of local residents since the reduced speed limit came into force between the St Paul’s roundabout and County Gates.

“I think it’s bonkers, it’s made the road more unsafe than it was before,” he said.

The trial is being extended to allow Bournemouth council to gather a full year’s worth of data from the stretch of road in question. This will give a better picture as to whether the reduced limit has cut the road’s accident rate.

Mr Burns said he was not surprised by this decision: “It always seemed ridiculous to get data in the quieter period and compare it against the previous 12 months,” he said. “I just don’t think they should have introduced it in the first place.”

John Satchwell, Bournemouth council’s road safety manager, said the initial six months had not been long enough to indicate a trend in the number of road accidents.

“The plan is to let the scheme run for another six months so that we can get the additional objective data over that period of time,” he said.

Cllr Michael Filer, portfolio holder for transport, said the 10mph difference in the speed limit added 33 seconds onto drivers’ journey times.

He said: “More than 50,000 vehicles travel over this route each day. We have to be sore that all the facts are exactly right.

“The last thing I intend to do is cancel the 40mph experiment.

“At the moment we are pretty certain that accidents are reducing and the last thing I want to do is end up with blood on my hands.”

Mr Satchwell admitted there had been a “wave of dissent” to the project, but pointed out the council had also received one or two positive observations.

“I think we were a little surprised at the number of representations, the number of hits that the Facebook site had,” he said.

“I think our personal anecdotal observations are that there has been something of an improvement in driver behaviour generally.

“It’s certainly much easier to use the slip road off Richmond Hill. To date we would say there appears to be a reduction in the number of accidents.”