A speed limit campaigner has defended a councillor who was slammed for making a comment about the death of a pedestrian.
Councillor Bailie Helen Wright was under fire after saying it took a fatality for a 20mph limit to be introduced on Johnston Avenue.
Derek Paton, who lives on the street, said the Coldside councillor was “unfairly subjected to a howl of protest” when all she had done was “convey the frustration” felt by many residents.
Ms Wright was branded “disgraceful” by SNP councillors at a city development committee meeting, when she said it had taken the death of 49-year-old Karen Lindsay, who died in a collision with a bus in November, to change the speed limits.
Derek said: “In speaking frankly at the city development committee meeting and disclosing the stark facts of the matter, Coldside councillor Bailie Helen Wright was unfairly subjected to a howl of protest related to her claim that it took the death of a pedestrian to secure the trial of a 20mph limit on Johnston Avenue.
“She conveyed the frustration felt by many local residents.
“During the three-year duration of the residents’ campaign, the authorities have done their best to ignore the evidence of a chronic speeding problem.
“I am in no doubt that the anti-social, excess-speed-related driver behaviour evidenced on the avenue indicates it is conducive to an accident waiting to happen.
“But the authorities describe Johnston Avenue as ‘very safe’. How this view chimes with a chronic speeding problem is beyond me.
“In other words, someone has to be killed or seriously injured before enforcement action is contemplated.
“Bailie Wright’s declaration was not wide off the mark.”
At the city development meeting, plans to introduce a 12-month trial of 20mph speed limits in the Glens area of Dundee were approved.
Mrs Wright had said she hoped the trial would be a success and that she believed 20mph zones should be introduced on some parts of busier roads like Clepington Road and Forfar Road.
She had also added: “It shouldn’t have to take a fatality for 20mph speed limits to be introduced”, which sparked the controversy.
