Residents are questioning the council’s plans to adapt current traffic calming measures in the village – when they say they ‘never wanted them in the first place’.

Bagillt residents have voted on new proposals made by the community council and Flintshire Council to convert the speed humps into ‘speed tables’ which are designed to further slow down traffic due to their wider surface.

The original speed humps installed over two years ago attracted hostility from residents who believed they would “put people off coming to the village”.

The Welsh Government’s road safety grant of £52,000 saw the introduction of speed humps at nine locations, a singular speed cushion near the war memorial and two full width ‘raised tables’ in the village.

However, residents say the voting opportunity on December 9 did not take into consideration public opinion as they only offered two options to choose from– the speed humps stay, or are converted into tables.

Resident David Stanley said: “Saturday’s vote was just about replacing one hump with yet another – nothing to do with removing them at all.”

He added: “Children are using the humps and platforms as a skateboard area and it won’t be long before a child is killed. The silly chicane also causes havoc when the refuse trucks are trying to reverse nearer to the houses.”

Derek Martin said: “I was given a voting slip and had a discussion with the present community councillors about the choices on the voting paper.

“They apologised that there was not an option to remove some or all of the humps and chicanes, and explained that if a speed hump was taken away and someone got run over, the police would be to blame.

“I gave them the voting slip back unused and said that I did not want either option. The humps were installed in the first place without public consultation and we have not been made aware who will pay for them to be modified.”

Amy Oldfield said: “Since the day they put them up, everyone has been questioning when we can get them removed.”

“On top of that, kids are using the tables as ramps with there bikes and scooters which again is causing more of a risk.

“The council have offered no option to remove the humps, no option to put in a speed camera, not even traffic lights or crossings – just bigger speed humps.

“We also have no signs throughout the village to inform drivers of the speed humps. Those travelling into the village who are not local have no clue to expect a hump.

“After all this, having humps has not resolved the issue of speeding in the village.”

Chair of the community council, Cllr Andrew Griffiths, agreed that the speed humps were “put in against our wishes in 2015” and that they “definitely need converting.”

He said: “The community council unanimously voted against the speed bumps two years ago, but Flintshire council agents enforced them against our wishes.

“Since day one, people have been against it, and now the change has been put to a democratic vote. When we had the vote a lot of people expected to have a third option, which they didn’t.

“This follows a meeting with Welsh Government earlier this year who said we cannot remove the speed humps because if there was an accident after, we would be held responsible.

“What we have ended up with – converting the humps to tables – is better than what we have now. The tables are more of a raised platform which cause less damage to vehicles and don’t shudder the car as much as speed humps.

“But they will still act as a deterrent to speeding in the village. We know some people wanted to remove the humps completely, but there was no other options than the two given.”

Flintshire Council’s chief officer for Streetscene and Transportation, Steve Jones, said: “The traffic calming features were installed on Bagillt High Street with funding from Welsh Government and following a comprehensive and fully legally compliant consultation process with the Community Council and local residents.

“Flintshire Council then went to great lengths to modify the features after local comments were received, following completion of the installation work.

“These modifications did not compromise the integrity of the original scheme which was intended to reduce the speed of vehicles and the number of accidents along the road, which previously had a poor accident record, particularly in respect of pedestrian accidents.

“The local community council then contacted Welsh Government directly with their concerns regarding the scheme.

“The Welsh Government confirmed that the required consultation process had been followed prior to the installation of the original scheme but requested the community council consider what modifications they felt would further improve the arrangements on site.

“Consequently the community council has undertaken a ballot on changes to the traffic calming arrangements.

“Flintshire Council has not been involved in the ballot and it will be for Welsh Government to consider if additional funding to undertake any further remedial measures can be made available.”

Cllr Griffiths said he expected more people than the 179 who did so to vote.

Following the public favour of 170 residents in comparison to the nine who voted against converting the speed humps, an application has been made to Welsh Government for “slippage funding” to perform the construction work.

Although plans are not yet concrete, councillors are hoping to receive confirmation of the grant at the beginning of the next financial year in April 2018.