Traffic calming delay criticised

The agency has declared the Victoria Road a priority area for speed reduction measures, but is being accused of putting lives at risk because it says it does not have sufficient funds to do the work in the current financial year.

Local resident Richard Canning, who recently presented a petition calling for traffic calming to Roads Service, the Mayor and the PSNI, repeated his warning that a delay could have fatal consequence.

“Who is going to take responsibility if a child, pensioner or other person is killed trying to cross the road between now and some unspecified date in the future?” he asked.

“They cannot say they haven’t the money to it; if it involves someone’s life, especially a child’s, it should be made a priority. This is a black spot and it is disgusting that nothing is being done about it.”

In a letter to East Antrim MLA David Hilditch following the submission of the petition, Roads Service senior engineer Paul King highlighted the existing traffic calming measures on Victoria Road and explained that an assessment in January 2009 had concluded that further measures were required. However, further requests in that year were deemed to be of higher priority.

A further review was undertaken following recent lobbying, with officials concluding that the road should be given a higher priority. This time, the stumbling block is that the traffic calming programme for 2010-11 has already been drawn up and funds are unlikely to be available for additional schemes.

Mr King concluded that Victoria Road would be considered for future traffic calming programmes, subject to legal processes being completed and availability of finance.

Alderman Hilditch has pledged to “keep pressure on the Department to see if we can get these measures implemented sooner”.