Over the last year, I have been contacted by a number of residents of Wyvern Road who have raised their concerns about speeding on Pampisford Road. I shared these worries as a regular driver on this stretch and was particularly concerned about the impact on children given proximity to Christ Church Primary School and Purley Nursery.
Local resident Jack also sent me some terrible footage showing vehicles mounting the footway on Pampisford Road to overtake traffic.
I've been putting pressure on both the Council and the Purley & Woodcote Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) to do more.
The SNT have undertaken speed checks and I'm pleased that this week, the Council's Highways contractor, FM Conway will start highways works to construct a new crossover and reinstate the footway and kerbs outside the new development at 39 Pampisford Road. This will be funded by the developer.
At the same time, Council officers are investigating the installation of bollards outside the new development, 35-37 Pampiford Road. This would also include the reinstatement of a full height kerb. I am hopeful that they will action this soon.
The Healthy School Street scheme for Christ Church Primary School is also being made permanent this week following an 18-month pilot. As part of this, Council officers are engaging with the school, to understand where their children are accessing the school from, and what barriers they see that could be contributing to discouraging active travel within the school community. They will then work with the school to understand how, subject to funding, they can address some of those barriers, both through education and engineering measures.
This is progress and local residents and I will review whether these changes make a difference to road safety before deciding whether we need to call for further measures. I am grateful to both Council officers and the SNT for taking this seriously - and my thanks to Wyvern Road residents especially Jack for pushing on this.
The next SNT Ward Panel meeting takes place on Wednesday 15th November at 7pm at Purley Fire Station (details attached). Any resident is welcome to attend.
Cllr Samir Dwesar
