By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Highways chiefs are reviewing the road safety of a busy Cheltenham road which residents say sees near-miss accidents on a weekly basis.
People living in Leckhampton are concerned about the dangers of crossing Church Road and the bottleneck the street has become for commuters.
More than 1,000 people backed a petition last year calling for a pedestrian crossing to be installed along there.
And residents say there is concern over the impact air pollution could be having on nearby schools.
“Church Road is increasingly busy with masses of new home developments squashed into a relatively small area,” one resident said.
“[It is ] increasingly being used as a cut through when there are road work and development issues nearby.
“Residents see near-miss accidents on a weekly basis and it’s incredibly worrying as the street is essentially a bottleneck for commuters, residents, (increasing in numbers with no additional infrastructure to facilitate the additional cars) along with hundreds of school children.
“The secondary school children on bikes seem extremely vulnerable and have taken to riding on the pavements.
“So many of us on the street were so concerned about the children’s safety that we campaigned for a zebra crossing.
“It received over 1100 signatures and our councillor, Martin Horwood has been very active in trying to get a crossing instated asap. In addition to this, the primary school is so concerned with the air pollution levels from the cars that they have installed air monitors.
“It shows worryingly high levels of air pollution during rush hours and the school is actively urging parents to not drive to school if at all possible, or those that need to drive to park further out.”
Gloucestershire County Council chiefs say they have listened to residents’ concerns about traffic conditions.
They say engineers have visited the area to observe the movement of traffic, cyclists and pedestrians.
And will review the findings of their investigation and consider next steps, including potential sources of funding, with local councillors.
“The safety of children travelling to school is of paramount importance and our Thinktravel team work with schools to help children travel safer,” a spokesperson for Gloucestershire County Council said.
“We have listened to the concerns of the community about traffic conditions on Church Road and our engineers have visited the area to observe the movement of traffic, cyclists and pedestrians.
“While there have been no recorded personal injury collisions here in the past five years, we recognise that crossing the road here can be difficult, especially for children, the elderly and people with a disability.
“We will review the findings of our investigation and consider next steps, including potential sources of funding, with the local councillors.”