PARENTS have added their voices to calls for safety measures at a dangerous junction – presenting an early test to a new council panel.

The four-way junction of Palmerston Road, Loughton Way, Roding Lane and Albert Road in Buckhurst Hill has long been notorious among pedestrians, who are given as little as five seconds to get across.

Elderly residents of Regency Lodge and Buckhurst Court sheltered housing, in Albert Road, collected 80 signatures calling on the county council to change the phasing of the lights in November - but have yet to see any changes.

Now 200 neighbours and young parents have added their voice to the chorus of campaigners by signing a second petition.

Cheryl Burrell, 35, of Rous Road, is mum to a four-year-old son and two-year-old twins, and tackles the junction twice a day to take her children to preschool at the Baptist Church in Palmerston Road.

She said: "You're trying to say to the children 'don't run across the road', but you have to just to get across.

"For elderly people, they have got no hope of getting across.
Fellow mum Kerry Salmon, of Rous Road, said: "In short the junction is like dicing with death.”

Petition organiser Steven Neville, 37, of Rous Road, said: "I have to run across there just to make sure I can get to the other side. Imagine being elderly."

The junction was on the agenda of the district council’s new local highways panel on Tuesday, set up to secure more local influence on county council matters.

Cllr Sylvia Watson said it was 'very, very early days’, adding: "That particular junction is one that's well known to me and it's on our agenda so I'm hoping we can press that on.”

"The difficulty is, people can petition all they like. If there's no technical solution then a petition can't change that and that's a frustration."

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