28 September 2022
The Parish Council join with the whole village in sending our thoughts and prayers to Mr Danby and his family after the horrific accident last week. There has been an urgent call for a pelican crossing, both at this crossing and the one outside Boots, BUT! According to the Police, a pelican crossing would have made little difference in the circumstances of the incident on Thursday, and neither of the crossings fulfil the very strict criteria that exist for such crossings in Essex Highways’ Guidelines.
The Parish Council are working with Braintree District Council, and Essex Highways with County Councillor Siddall, to try to find ways that we can reduce the speed that people use to drive through our village. We are as frustrated as everybody that progress is so slow despite three nasty accidents.
Please keep pressing all your elected representatives to get some traffic calming measures in place, but demanding specific measures without knowing all the rules and regulations will just end in rejection. Demand some action to help the situation, but let the experts decide what action.
The laws do exist to help, we have a 30mph limit and a law forbidding the use of mobiles whilst driving, what we really need is for those to be enforced. Tricky for individuals to do anything about speeding, but photos and videos of phone usage can be posted on the Essex Police Website as long as they include the time and the registration number of the vehicle – and obviously make sure you and yours are adhering to those laws yourselves!
Nikki Spelling