20mph limit is a must in our street (From Times Series)

20mph limit is a must in our street

9:56am Friday 19th March 2010 in

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For several years, residents in Church Lane, East Finchley, have been calling on Barnet Council to improve road safety.

Church Lane is a narrow residential street running between East End Road and the High Road. It is mostly one-way, with narrow footpaths and a hump-back bridge over the railway lines.

Pedestrians include parents and children walking to two primary schools and one secondary school.

In 2006, parents and teachers called for Church Lane to be made a 20mph zone, and to have road humps installed to enforce this.

Residents continue to be concerned about traffic speed, and the number of drivers who ignore the one-way system.

Since its formation in 2008, the East Finchley Village Residents Association (EFVRA) has also been asking the council to make Church Lane a 20mph zone.

A previous council survey of speeds indicated the average speed was 22mph. In response to complaints this did not correspond with residents’ experiences, a second survey was carried out by the council over a four-day period in December 2009 which showed the average speed was 29.5mph.

Residents would like to be told why Barnet Council does not accept this evidence that 20mph speed restrictions make a major contribution to road safety? It is a mercy nobody has been killed or seriously injured in accidents on Church Lane.

Is it the council’s policy to wait for death and injury before responding to people’s concerns?

I have repeatedly invited the council’s director of environment and transport to EFVRA meetings to explain to people why it is so ideologically opposed to traffic calming measures in Church Lane.

The next meeting will be held in The East Finchley Constitutional Club, in The Walks, on March 22.

The director is cordially invited to attend that meeting. Alternatively, members of EFVRA are very willing to come to meet council officials.

Bob Owens, EFVRA chairman