Church Road, Evington – Traffic Calming measures
It seems I missed the consultation window on the Church Road traffic calming measures. See picture.
I have lived on Stoughton Lane for 17 years and have seen the mini roundabout junction outside St Denys Church become more and more dangerous.
Traffic coming up Shady Lane to the junction hardly ever stops to check for approaching traffic from Stoughton Lane that has priority. I’ve had several near misses over the years.
Traffic coming out of Stoughton Lane cannot see the traffic coming from Church Road due to the blind bend. This bend needs to be removed for better visibility and safety. Also the speed bump on Church Road is not well situated, as cars start to accelerate towards the mini roundabout from Church Road, after the bump. Again, there have been several near misses on this junction because of it.
Trying to turn left from Stoughton Lane is very difficult and tight, as the kerb was never widened to allow for the roundabout. This verge needs to be widened to allow for traffic turning left.
Stoughton Lane is also part of the rat runs in both directions at peak times with drivers using the 60mph limit to the maximum !!
Finally, turning left from Church Road onto Stoughton Lane is very dangerous due to overgrown hedges along the stretch leading to Rectory Gardens. It’s already not wide enough for two cars to pass through with poor visibility from both sides.
In conclusion, all these measures are short term fixes and just kicking the can down the road. The main issue is not having a proper Ring Road completed on the section between Marydene Drive/Spencefild Lane junction and upto the A6 London Road by the side of Asda, which was originally allocated in 1908 !!
Further traffic build up due to recent developments on (and opposite) the old Farm Park on Gartree Road and the proposed huge development south of Gartree Road with many thousands of new homes will only make our infrastructure creak beyond breaking point.
I’m not against new homes but it needs to be properly planned along with infrastructure improvements.
I’m sure there are many people who feel the same way about this matter.
Ashraf Patel
I must say I fully support Ashraf as I have long advocated for the mini roundabout at the junction of Shady Lane, Church Road, Stoughton Lane to be addressed as it is a constant accident waiting to happen. The anxiety it causes to local people every single day may not be recorded as accident statistics but it is far from rocket science to understand the issues here. To refuse to act simply because there have been no accidents is simply unacceptable.