JP1 Assessment Article 4

TOM HOWARD / ROYSTON CROW 20/11/07 WESTMILL A10

Action is needed amid road safety fears about the A10 at Westmill, as the potential for accidents remains despite previous action.

Concerned residents and village officials want to raise awareness of the dangers posed by vehicles passing at speed, and want motion-activated electronic warning signs and average speed cameras installed.

Road safety measures have already been imposed following previous campaigns, but are proving ineffective.

Westmill parish councillor Muriel Parsons, who has tackled the issue for several years, said: “We do not want to wait for the next fatality to get something done.”

The A10 traverses a series of large dips at Westmill causing blind spots for drivers, while cars regularly queue at two junctions there, obstructing the road and creating a dangerous situation leading to accidents.

Mrs Parsons said: “There is an incident log in the village tea shop for drivers to report crashes and near misses, but many go unrecorded.”

Hertfordshire Highways have responsibility for the A10, but action by them needs factoring into long-term plans.

Safety measures already introduced include warning signs and anti-skid surfaces while a 50 mile-per-hour limit is in place but not adhered to. Hertfordshire Highways representative Raj Butam has promised councillors a survey to assess further needs.

Parish councillors are conducting investigations, having talked with the Police and MP Oliver Heald.

Councillors are planning a public meeting for the near future.


ENDS


Word count: 227



REFLECTIVE REPORT:

I wrote this for the Royston Crow weekly newspaper, which prints every Thursday and is where I am doing work experience.
This is an example that shows that, when news is scarce, you sometimes have work hard to find stories and angles to use.

The Crow has two editions, one for Royston and its surrounds and one for another large town called Buntingford. That week, the Buntingford edition was missing its front page lead and so, as Westmill is close to Buntingford, this was used

It was eventually rehashed by another reporter after developments that occurred later in the week after I had filed the story.

I sourced the story two weeks earlier after routinely calling local parish councillors in the in places where the Crow is circulated. Seeking upcoming events to cover, I found Mrs Parsons volunteered this issue as something which was ongoing and could be covered at a later date.

I interviewed her over the phone immediately at the time, which was one of my first ever phone interviews. I had to think of questions on the spot, as I had no time to prepare or research the topic, but was able to get sufficient information to write the article. I kept my notes safe, until the time came when I needed to produce a piece.

The story is a little unbalanced without an alternative source to counter Mrs Parsons’ opinions, but I could not contact Raj Butam at Hertfordshire Highways before filing the story.

It was hard to find a news-worthy angle, as nothing was actually happening. Therefore the inaction the surrounding the issue became my angle.

I used a standard four paragraph introduction and the “inverted triangle” approach taught to me in class when writing, to provide as concise and interesting a story as possible.



Word count: 300