People left fearful by the removal of crash-damaged barrier from outside their homes have been given a positive response from councillors.
Residents in Upper Abbey Road, Brighton, want a crash barrier back after they were removed during the summer.
After a deputation by 12 residents to a meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council in October, two councillors paid a visit to the site.
Labour councillor Trevor Muten, who chairs the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee, joined his party colleague Tristram Burden, one of the ward councillors for Queen’s Park.
At the Transport and Sustainability Committee meeting at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Tuesday 5 December), Councillor Muten said that he wanted to see what could be done to improve safety at the site.
It is opposite the corner of Whitehawk Hill Road and by a service road at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
Councillor Muten said: “It was agreed with the residents and councillors that some sort of barrier would be better than none.
“I am pleased to report that officers have instructed independent road safety auditors to carry out a full site survey and report their findings.”
Any recommended work would be carried out as part of existing budgets and programmes but Councillor Muten said that he had recommended prompt action to reduce the hazards in the area.
A “robust cage barrier” was placed on the west side of Upper Abbey Road, almost certainly by East Sussex County Council, which was the highways authority for the area before 1997.
In July, the Upper Abbey Road barrier was removed and Brighton and Hove City Council put dropped kerbs in on both sides of the road.
Upper Abbey Road resident Peter Moore told councillors in October that on Monday 21 August, a stolen car crashed into his house where the former barrier would previously have prevented this.
A second car crashed into the same house on Monday 28 August and, in September, a parked van rolled down Whitehawk Hill Road after the handbrake failed. It crashed into a resident’s car.
Mr Moore said that he felt unsafe in his home and that the repairs to his property were expected to cost £4,000.
Cllr Muten’s response seems insipid, to say the least, and let’s hope there are no more damaging incidents here while the council drags its feet. If a robust barrier placed in 1997 served its purpose for 25 years, why the need for expensive site surveys? Just replace the barrier – it’s surely not that difficult?
Prevailing wisdom on barriers has changed over the years, but also there’s the matter that anything they put in becomes a means to sue the council if there’s another crash.
Some drivers dont deserve the freedom they have, stealing cars an crashing em!
Those barriers aren’t stopping a car.
I don’t live there but it looks like the issue is the road. It’s too much of a fork instead of a T junction so someone coming down Whitehawk Hill Rd has a more or less straight line onto Upper Abbey Rd instead of being forced to stop.
Barriers like this aren’t really to stop, they are to redirect. That’s a very big difference because it can change a fatality into a major trauma.