This evening saw an episode which re-iterated the desperate need for traffic calming on the Lime Trees estate. Residents in Laughton and Bengarth Roads in particular have been calling for their streets to be made safer because of rat-runners speeding through their residential roads. Councillors held a public meeting with residents last year after a petition was collected asking for action. Since then Cllr Bassam Mahfouz organised a series of meetings between residents and the council’s traffic management team and came up with proposals that would help alleviate the serious problems faced by residents. Transport for London (TfL) were to fund the scheme, but have since pulled out because of the Tory council’s lack of co-operation over the bus lane times. TfL will now be funding a small part of the scheme: a raised platform on the corner of Hawtrey Avenue, Langtry and Laughton Roads (see map). However, following tonight’s incident where a car veered onto the pavement and crashed through a resident’s front wall. Thank God, that no-one was hurt, but this was not the only damage the driver had caused, having damaged another vehicle and nearly killing some pedestrians in Bengarth Road only moments earlier.

Cllr Mahfouz said,

“I was shocked to see this tonight. This is meant to be a residential road and a safe route to three local schools. We need to see as much of the traffic calming measures implemented as soon as possible before someone loses their life. I’ll continue to push for funding of this important scheme as soon as possible.”