Calls for safety measures on busy Peterborough road after crash
Councillors and residents in a Peterborough neighbourhood have called for more safety measures along a busy stretch of road.
It comes after a crash took place just up from the Hallfields Lane junction on Gunthorpe Road on October 1, resulting in a car toppling onto its side and a resident’s wall being knocked over.
Pictures from the scene showed emergency services in attendance, but no injuries were reported.
Liberal Democrat Gunthorpe ward councillors Sandra Bond, Andrew Bond and Ann Shaheed met with Peterborough City Council’s network and traffic manager Peter Tebb on October 9 to voice concerns about speeding along the road and discuss what could be done to prevent further accidents.
Cllr Andrew Bond told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We get reports of speeding and that’s a major concern, particularly with schools around here.
“It only takes a child to step into the street by themselves for something horrible to happen.”
He said that short-term solutions could include static signage and more community speed watches, while longer-term solutions may see speed bumps installed.
Mr Tebb also had a separate meeting with Paston and Walton councillors Alex Rafiq (Conservative) and Asif Shaheed (Liberal Democrat), which took place on the same day towards the western end of Gunthorpe Road.
Cllr Rafiq is hoping to push for speed cameras to be installed in the area which would be funded by the government, but would still need to be maintained by the council.
He said: “I spoke to my group about this around six weeks ago and said I wanted to put a motion in to council for the government to fund speed cameras for areas and roads that have had accidents and even fatalities.
“If we put a good enough case together, the treasury could pay for it which would take pressure off the council, as we cant’ afford things like speed bumps and chicanes.”
Local resident Andrew Macfarlaine, who is hoping to be a candidate for the area in next year’s local elections, was also at the meeting and said he was gathering crash data for the nearby wards via a Freedom of Information request.
After the meetings, Mr Tebb from the city council said: “Councillors voiced inappropriate speed as their main concerns.
“Obviously the footpaths get busy at school times and if you get the speed combined with that, you’ve got potential for innocent people being injured and all the rest of it.”
In terms of what measures could be put in place on Gunthorpe Road, he added: “Short-term is about looking at static signage and asking is there anything more we can do to make drivers aware that they’re approaching a school?
“And because the schools are over quite a long length, do we need to duplicate it? Then there should be something physical like a speed cushion.”
When asked if there was enough funding for the measures, Mr Tebb said: “There is never enough funding. We can bid cases to the combined authority for schemes, and accident reduction and prevention is one of those areas we want to push them on.”