Councillors from Ramsgate Town, Thanet District and Kent County councils have organised a public meeting for people from Sir Moses Montefiore who are concerned about road safety following a recent fatality and other accidents in Dumpton Park Drive.
The meeting will be held in the back room of the Racing Greyhound pub on Monday (March 21) between 6pm and 7pm.
Concerned representatives from organisations such as Holy Trinity school and a residential home have been invited. A police representative will be in attendance.
A call for traffic calming measures was made following the death of a cyclist in a collision in January. Since then there has been another collision in the same spot resulting in damage to several cars, but no injuries.
Resident Bob Barra, has amassed a dossier of evidence which records earlier accidents and futile correspondence with KCC.
Kent County Council Highways Department has been urged to attend the meeting but in a response letter councillors were told: “We receive many requests for the implementation of improvements on the highway, and all requests are reviewed and prioritised.
“We use an evidence-based approach to prioritise investment in our highway improvement projects to achieve safer roads and streets. Our first priority is to check if there is any pattern of personal injury crash records for the past three years that could be addressed by engineering methods.
“Following our checks, we have established that in this location there is no such pattern; it is therefore very difficult to prioritise this site for Crash Remedial Measures against locations across the county where a pattern of incidents is occurring.
“Implementing highway improvements at known crash hotspots remains our priority. At this stage we have no programmed works at this location, although we will of course continue to monitor the site.
“Although investigations are still ongoing about the very sad incident at the junction of Montefiore Avenue and Dumpton Park Drive, early indications are that the vehicle pulled out from the junction into the path of the cyclist, and excessive vehicle speed along Dumpton Park Drive was not a factor in causing this crash.”
Councillors in attendance will be Pat Makinson, from the town council, Pat Moore, from district, and Karen Constantine from the county council.
Cllr Constantine said: “I was very disappointed on behalf of local residents that Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority (KMFRA) has also declined to send someone to meet with concerned residents. It’s frankly shabby treatment especially after a fatality, when people are concerned about how to improve road safety.”
