Petition to improve road safety outside Lewisham primary school gains 1,000 signatures

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Parents at a South London primary school say they’re too scared to let their kids walk home for fear that they’ll be knocked down by speeding cars.

The stretch of road running alongside Beecroft Garden Primary School in Brockley, South East London has a 20mph speed limit.

But residents say motorists regularly whizz down it at 60 miles per hour as there are no speed cameras.

Last month, an 11 year-old girl was left seriously injured after being hit by a car on the junction of Brockley Road and Merritt Road.

Worried parents have now launched a petition demanding urgent action to improve the safety of the road.

Nurse Siobhan Armstrong, 37, whose five-year-old daughter Yuna, attends the school said it was not a matter of if but when another accident happens.

She said: “It’s not if another child gets hit, it’s when. It’s so obvious it’s going to happen.

“We’re talking about lives. We’re talking about being held hostage to a road that’s so dangerous we’re afraid to walk down it.

“It’s a straight stretch of road and it’s very wide so you often get people trying to undertake in the bus lane.

“It’s just terrifying walking down it when that is happening and people are doing 50 or 60mph.

“One of the councillors came in to talk to the children about the road and from what I’ve heard they’re all terrified of it.”

 

Naqash Goher, 33, whose two children, Imaan, six, and Abrish, five, attend the school, said he didn’t feel walking down the road when picking them up from school.

He said: “I don’t feel it’s safe when I’m with the children and even if they were older I wouldn’t feel safe letting them walk on their own.

“I’ve witnessed all sorts on the road. It’s usually quick traffic but you also have cars and motorbikes racing and there have been several accidents.

“We desperately need speed calming measures, preferably speed cameras, to keep our children safe.”

Parents monitoring the road believe there have been at least seven crashes on Brockley Road and surrounding streets in the last nine months.

In March, Bryan & Keegan estate agents, which is less than a five minute walk from the school, was forced to close for repairs after being hit by a car.

It’s reopening date was delayed after it was the site of a second car accident just a few months later in June.

In the same month, a car slammed into another estate agent on the road, Acorn, and a bollard was knocked over outside of a cafe.

A month earlier, a fence on nearby Whitbread Road was damaged by a speeding motorist.

Then in September, a car slammed into railings outside the school, causing significant damage.

Siobhan, who started the petition, said: “This is not a knee jerk reaction. The petition is a last resort since we’ve highlighted the problem to the council about it before.

“My husband and others addressed it with local councillors and the Met Police and what came of that was that there’s no money for anything and there’s no action.

“It’s a serious problem and it keeps getting pushed to one side.

“We can’t wait for another child to get hit.”

It has already racked up almost 1,000 signatures in less than a week.

Lewisham council has been contacted for comment.