5:36pm Thursday 18th March 2010
By Edmund Tobin
HOUSEHOLDERS living along a stretch of road plagued by motoring accidents have warmly welcomed a move to lower its speed limit.
Residents in London Road, Abridge, have suffered cars in their houses, bikes in their hedges, and vans through their fences due to traffic speeding down their 60mph street.
After a petition and pressure from Abridge Parish Council, Essex County Council has now begun a consultation to lower the limit to 40mph.
Dennis Austen, 60, of London Road, helped organise a residents' petition on the speed limit with his wife Julia.
He said: “We have had no end of accidents along here. One of my neighbours had a van drive into the front of his house. If that's not down to speeding I don't know what is. When people drive along this road they don't' appear to have any care for the people living here.
“We are all glad we're getting this speed limit. It's good news and down to the actions of the residents working with the parish council.”
Robert Kidby, 80, who has been living in London Road since 1958, said the behaviour of motorists had greatly changed since the days when he would play football in the street.
“We've been calling for that speed limit for more years than I can remember,” he said. “We're always having accidents. Our front hedge was taken out, the corner of my neighbour's fence was taken out. One time a van came down and they found him upside down on top of three or four cars.”
Terry O'Sullivan, 34, also welcomed the new limit but questioned whether it could be enforced.
He said: “I think it's a good thing, but whether people will obey it I don't know. People come off that roundabout and just belt along. I've seen motorbikes crashed in the hedges -you see them all get carted off by ambulance.”
Once the reduction is introduced, following a consultation exercise, it will extend from just outside Abridge Park 628 metres down London Road.
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