Councillor aiming to combat motorists who use Dogsthorpe roads like a ‘race track’
A city councillor is calling for action to tackle speeding and dangerous driving on a Peterborough road – after two teenagers were seriously hurt in a collision.
Dogsthorpe Councillor Katy Cole is set to meet with residents, police, Peterborough City Council officers, ward councillors and Cabinet colleagues on Tuesday June 9 to discuss measures which could be put in place to combat speeding and road safety concerns.
“The reason I’ve put this meeting together is so that the [council] officers, the police and Angus Ellis (Cabinet Member for Transport) can come up with a plan,” Cllr Cole said.
The residential roads around Sycamore Avenue are known to be an area where motorists consistently drive erratically at speed. Earlier this month, two teenagers were seriously injured after the car they were driving hit three parked vehicles. The incident resulted in Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes, and Dogsthorpe councillor Ishfaq Hussain calling for action to slow vehicles down on the road.
Cllr Cole told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that local residents often compare the area to a ‘race track’:
“Residents have used that term with me,” she said: “Cars speed down to the bottom of Newark Avenue into Elmfield Road, they go up onto Central Avenue, they go right on Sycamore Avenue… up onto Eastern Avenue and then back again round on to Newark Avenue.”
The councillor said the dangers of speeding in such an area were many and evident:
“It’s a very, very busy, highly populated area,” she said, adding “you’ve got children walking to and from school, and to the shops.”
Cllr Cole has first-hand experience of what she calls’ ASB driving’:
“I nearly got knocked over by a speeding car only a few weeks ago on Newark Avenue when I was attempting to use the zebra crossing.”
It’s an issue, the councillor noted, that has been going on for far too long:
“I was elected in 2023 and there haven’t been many months that have gone past where I haven’t had a resident contact me… about anti-social driving, anti-social parking or speeding.”
The councillor believes that bringing key players – as well as residents – together in discussion is the best way to ascertain which kind of measures will be most effective in tackling the issues.
“It’s important that we have this meeting with the police and highways teams, and councillors and residents, so that every one can be heard,” she said.
“We can work together as a community to try and prevent this from happening.”