Residents of Chalford and Minchinhampton have started separate petitions to Gloucestershire County Council following two serious road accidents in which children were injured while crossing roads – accidents that local councillors say could easily have become fatalities.
Both happened at locations where the community has long campaigned for crossings or other road safety improvements, campaigns that Cllr Chloe Turner, Green county councillor for the area, says have been “largely ignored”.
In Minchinhampton, a 12-year-old girl was knocked down by a car while crossing from the bus stop on the Cirencester Road on her way home from school on November 21. Though her injuries were minor, the girl was very shaken and residents say the outcome could easily have been far worse. They are asking for a pelican crossing as this busy road passes through Minchinhampton to make the road safe for pedestrians crossing it to catch buses and get to the town centre.
Hannah Beardshall, mother of the injured girl, said: “Like lots of other local parents, we’ve been quietly worried about the Cirencester Road for years. We all know it’s dangerous; all three of our girls need to cross it daily to catch buses to school and college.
“We are relieved that our daughter wasn’t seriously injured in this frightening accident; it could have been so much worse. This is a wake-up call for all of us. Our community deserves safer roads, and it’s clear that a new pedestrian crossing is needed on this dangerous stretch of busy A road.
“No family should have to live in fear of something like this happening again. We urge the county council to take action and hope they can act quickly using our experience as momentum, before another child is more seriously injured.”
Less than two weeks later, in Chalford, an 11-year-old girl was hit by a car as she walked to school on December 3, sustaining a broken bone and concussion. Residents there want a zebra crossing where children can cross the Fourways junction when walking from Chalford Hill to Thomas Keble school. The petition also calls for the 30mph signs to be moved further out of the village, to give drivers more notice to slow from 60mph to 30mph before reaching the junction. Chalford’s Green district councillors Tricia Watson, Helen Fenton and James Boyle are backing the residents’ campaign.
Bev Roesen, administrator for Chalford’s Frith Youth Centre, organised her petition after being first at the scene of the accident. She said: “It was really shocking to see what happened. The outcome could easily have been far worse. Something really needs to be done urgently.”
Cllr Chloe Turner, Green county councillor for Minchinhampton division, which covers both of the affected areas, said: “In the Local Transport Plan, the County Council talks of providing ‘an inclusive safe, reliable and efficient highway environment that encourages walking, and provides pedestrian links to connect communities, employment and services’. Yet the county council has still taken no meaningful action to provide safe crossings, despite years of campaigning alongside residents by me and my predecessor, Cllr Rachel Smith (Green).
“Local highways managers do their best with tiny budgets, but the county council has largely ignored and under-funded rural road safety – and the rural road network more generally – for decades, and now we see the result.
“My heart goes out to the families of the children who have been hurt in these incidents, which could easily have been fatalities. With the inevitable having happened, it is vital the County Council now allocates the funding needed to address the serious risk to pedestrians at both sites.”
Cllr Turner pointed out that the danger will get significantly worse in Minchinhampton when the new surgery in Cirencester Road opens in the spring. “When the surgery opens, many more pedestrians will need to cross the road, often during rush hour and in the dark,” she said. “It is outrageous that GCC have not proposed a formal pedestrian crossing, only a raised table. The increased risk, especially to vulnerable residents, makes this option wholly inadequate to ensure public safety on such a busy road.”
To sign the petitions, go to:
Minchinhampton: https://glostext.gloucestershire.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=110&RPID=142220526&HPID=142220526&$LO$=1