Residents lives ‘made a misery’ by nuisance drivers using their road as a short-cut

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Clapham residents living on “rat run” streets fear someone will get killed unless the speed limit is dropped to 10mph.

Locals on Lynette Avenue and Klea Avenue have suffered years of nuisance from motorists who use their one lane streets as a short-cut to avoid traffic on main roads.

Drivers cut down their roads to get onto Clapham Common South Side – a main route into central London

The shortcut lets them avoid going through a congested junction with three sets of traffic lights.

Residents said their lives are being made a misery by thousands of motorists who race down their 20 mph roads at speeds of up to 60mph from 5am to midnight.

They claim road rage motorists regularly wake them up beeping horns and say they have witnessed fights start between angry drivers trying to squeeze past each other on the narrow roads.

Locals are now calling on Lambeth council to introduce a 10mph speed limit, which they say will discourage sat nav devices from suggesting using the streets as a short-cut.

Bettina Michael-Winters, 42, only moved to Lynette Avenue in June 2021, but said the problem had got worse since she arrived.

She said: “It’s the constant abuse. My poor dry cleaner guy got so much grief for stopping outside the house.

“A lady went into labour down here and she couldn’t get out of her own street to go to hospital.

“A cat got killed. We’ve had it all. If they put a speed limit of 10 mph it would drop off the navigation systems.

“What do we have to do to get them to take it seriously? It can’t be that someone gets killed before something is done.”

Francois Gamaury, 48, who has lived down Lynette Avenue for over a decade said nuisance drivers have only become a problem in the last five years.

He said: “The drivers block each other and start screaming at each other. I’ve got small kids and you’re trying to put them to sleep – it’s awful. If they put a no right turn into Klea Avenue it would stop the cars and the problem would be solved.”

His neighbour, Tristam Larder, 43, has been fighting for the council to take action against  drivers who race down their road for five years.

Traffic counting conducted over a two week period in both 2019 and 2021 showed that over 50,000 vehicles came down Lynette Avenue – including 3,863 trucks and 55 lorries.

The dad-of-two said: “It’s not a static problem. It’s getting worse and worse, year by year, and there’s no solution. We get lorries, vans, taxis coming down – everything.

“I daren’t let the kids out the front. You get cars coming down here at really high speeds.”

A spokesman for Lambeth council said:  “Lambeth has the most progressive and ambitious transport policy in London, which is rebalancing our streets and tackling the problems caused by excessive traffic across our borough.

“We are aware of the traffic problems around Lynette Avenue, and local councillors have been in touch with residents to support their efforts to improve the situation. We’re committed to addressing these issues to make Lynette Avenue safer for everyone.

“But this is a borough-wide problem and, after a decade of unprecedented cuts in the funding we receive from central government, we don’t have the resources to tackle it everywhere at once. We will consider potential measures to improve traffic safety around Lynette Avenue as soon as possible.”

Pictured top: Residents of Lynette Avenue in Clapham. Left to Right: Bettina Michael-Winters, Jenny Treleaven, Henry Brigstocke and daughter, Lauren Mele and baby, Francois Gamaury (image: Robert Firth)