Residents demand speed bumps in ‘rat run’ road
By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter
A 92-year-old woman who says three of her cats have died in a ‘rat run’ road wants to see speed bumps installed.
Mary Ward said cars ‘shoot along’ Rogers Road, in Tooting, and it gets heavily congested from the volume of traffic.
She spoke in support of a petition set up by neighbours demanding Wandsworth council installs speed bumps, and any other necessary measures, to slash the speed and volume of traffic in the road.
The petition, which was signed by 78 people, said the road is used as a “rat run” due to “speed bumps and other traffic-calming measures in surrounding roads”.
It said: “We would like the same traffic-calming measures to be added to the road in order to discourage use of the road as a ‘rat run’ and to encourage safe driving.”
Concerns were raised for “staff and student safety” when Paddock School, for students with special educational needs, announced it will be moving to neighbouring Broadwater Road in September.
Supporting the petition, Ms Ward said she has lived in the road for about 40 years and had “lost three cats being run over”.
She said: “Cars come shooting through, at 3am in the morning you can hear them screeching brakes” and they sit “nose to tail sometimes” as the road becomes so congested. She claimed “none of them are doing 20mph”.
She said: “As soon as cars turn into this road, they shoot along. You daren’t take a chance crossing until you can see there’s no more cars.”
Hasina Bandali, 67, has also lived in the road for about 40 years, and said residents had “been trying for quite a while” to get the council to install measures in the road to tackle traffic issues.
She said: “They really speed most of the time because there’s no bumps on this road. There are children here and we are worried about them.”
Ms Bandali claimed she had seen accidents happen because cars are “speeding, then around the corner they can’t control it and by the time they’ve controlled it they’ve hit cars”.
A Wandsworth council spokeswoman said: “Petitions are a routine part of our open democracy in Wandsworth.
“We are aware of the petition and it will be considered in the normal way.”
Pictured top: Mary Ward (Picture: Charlotte Lillywhite/LDRS)