Safety appeals Residents call for action on speeding
RESIDENTS and a local union have come together to call for action to be taken on speeding in Lockleaze.
Community union Acorn has reached 216 signatures on a petition for more traffic-calming measures in the area, which it says is “notorious” for speeding.
Around 40 residents – many of them children – took part in a demonstration for the Speed Free Lockleaze campaign on Saturday afternoon at Gainsborough Square.
Newly elected Green councillors for Lockleaze, Heather Mack and David Wilcox, attended the event. They pledged to arrange a meeting on the issue with Bristol City Council decision-makers.
Ms Mack said: “We are lucky not to have had many serious accidents, but there have been some really serious cases of bad driving late at night in Lockleaze, which has caused damage to cars.
“People have been caught going at 50mph on 20mph roads. There have been cases of cars turning over.”
Bristol City Council has said plans for a multimillion-pound project to improve road safety and sustainable transport in Lockleaze are underway and work on the first phase of the project is due to start later this year.
The council says it is investing £3.6million in a scheme to to improve bus, walking and cycling journeys in Lockleaze and support housing developments with new infrastructure.
It pledges the first phase will see upgrades for Muller Road between Gloucester Road and Shaldon Road. The second will focus on the section between Shaldon Road and Heath Road.
Subject to completion of a Traffic Regulation Order process, which is underway, the council says work on phase one will start in the autumn.
It promises improvements to bus and cycle lanes, bus stops and pedestrian crossings, including removal of motor access for to Brent Road, Draycott Road and Springfield Avenue from Muller Road.
Phase two, due to go ahead in 2022, will involve “improving road safety and reducing rat running” on Glenfrome Road and Stottbury Road.
The plans to improve road safety outside Trinity Academy include two speed tables and a zebra crossing on Romney Avenue and a parallel crossing on Constable Road. These measures are going through the TRO process and the council expects work to begin on them in the summer.
Acorn says it welcomes the council’s intention to provide traffic-calming measures on roads including Springfield Avenue and Romney Avenue.
Some of the measures – such as two speed tables and a zebra crossing on Romney Avenue and a parallel crossing on Constable Road – are part of the scheme for a 1,220-pupil secondary school under construction, Trinity Academy.
But an Acorn spokesperson said the traffic-calming plans do “not go far enough”, arguing they are “urgently required at other locations where excessive speeding has been observed... Glenfrome and Stottbury Roads, Bonnington Walk and Landseer Avenue to name a few”.
They added: “Every day cars are speeding far in excess of the 20mph limit on most of the Lockleaze streets and it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt.”
There are 24 sites earmarked for development in the Lockleaze area. Around 1,500 homes could be built in the area over the next 10 years.
Acorn hopes traffic-calming can be funded with Community Infrastructure Levies and other contributions from developers.