FOUR accidents in four weeks have led to an outcry among residents of Deepdene Road, Loughton, concerned that the state of their road will mean that next time an accident could be fatal.

Residents are sick of hearing accidents outside their homes which they claim are caused by cars going too fast, bad road surfacing and a lack of road markings.

Now they are pleading with Epping Forest Council to assess the situation, and fix the problem.

Marking off the recent accidents on her hand, town councillor Eileen Murphy, who lives in the road, said: "There was one at the top of the road where the car went up the pavement, then there was a motorbike accident at the top of the road where the bike started hitting some bollards and lost control. At the junction of Poundfields and Deepdene Road a couple of weeks ago a motorbike hit a car."

Mrs Murphy said the most recent was at 8.45pm on Sunday, July 25, when two cars collided near the bottom of the road. Three young children were treated at the scene.

One had cuts to his hands and legs and an eye injury, another complained of chest pain consistent with a seat belt injury. The third child and their mother suffered from shock. All were taken to Whipps Cross Hospital, Leytonstone.

Norman Forbes, who has lived in the road for about 50 years, says he cannot remember the last time the road was repaired.

He said: "We had a big storm about 15 years ago,when lightning hit a house. It caused a fire and flooding down the road. I'm sure the subsistence still hasn't been fixed. Then there was the damage from the gas explosion a few years ago."

Mrs Murphy added: "It's as if no-one cares about this road. A lot of the problems are since the explosion. They've done nothing to fix the road since then."

One elderly resident said she was finding it "more difficult" to get out in her mobility buggy because of the risk of falling down potholes in the road.

A district council spokesman said someone had been out to look at the road recently.

Whilst they believed there had been no change in the road condition since the last time it was checked, they agreed there was "clearly a significant problem" and the road was in need of "major repair work".

The spokesman said it was hoped funding would be available next year to carry out repairs.