Anti-speed campaigner has his car written off

The car of a campaigner trying to reduce traffic on his residential street had his car written off - by a rat run driver.

James Aitken has complained about the volume of vehicles on Richmond Drive, as well as the speed some of them travel at.

On Sunday morning another car crashed into his Black Peugeot.

Despite his car being in gear and having the hand brake on, the force of the collision pushed it up the hill.

The Reformer reported earlier this year that a council survey found over half of 4,000 cars travelling on Richmond Drive in one week were speeding.

However, officers said the average speed of 32.8mph was not “excessive”.

James, who has accused the council of brushing off his concerns, had been encouraging his neighbours to park on their street in an attempt to slow traffic down, but he reckons most will avoid that now.

He said: “Both cars are written off. No one was injured, so this will simply be brushed aside and not make any of the statistics relating to injury accidents. It is another example of the dangerous speed I have been highlighting, and was highlighted in the survey (carried out by South Lanarkshire Council).”

The accident comes as one of the candidates in the upcoming Rutherglen Central and North byelection said she would make tackling rat run roads a priority.

Ellen Bryson, who is standing for the Liberal Democrats, said: “Much of the traffic going through local streets is not local traffic but people looking for the quickest route through the area to somewhere else.

“Local people want to see streets made safer and traffic speed curbed.

Richmond Drive is astonishingly busy, especially at peak times.

It is made worse by the downhill gradient and the difficult junction at the bottom where the traffic calming has created new problems.”

Ms Bryson said there were also problems on Calderwood Road.

South Lanarkshire Council head of roads and transportation, Gordon Mackay, said: “I can confirm that residents of Richmond Drive have been in contact with the council in relation to the speed and volume of traffic and a request for traffic calming was made.

“The council will review the monthly accident update from Police Scotland and see if this incident has been recorded, as only injury accidents need to be.

“Prior to this incident, there have been no recorded injury accidents within the last three years.

“Therefore, this incident alone would not justify the need for traffic calming measures or further investigations to be undertaken.”