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.”
Road safety concerns on EVERY road not just one!
All our roads in thanet need
sorting out, Safety on our roads in thanet is a big joke , police, thanet council don’t care about the speed vehicles race around our streets ,if they once got out of the police cars ,and thanet council got out of the office and did speed checks across thanet something may be done about it, and vehicles parking in stupid places blocking roads ,footpaths and grassed areas,
Its nothing to do with Thanet Council! Its Kent County Council who deal with roadS etc, and if you contact them as I did a while ago about a safety problem, I was told I had to ask my Kent County Councillor to act on my behalf! Yeah right! Instead I made myself a menace, stamped my foot, and took it to the top of KCC, and eventually managed to have Bollards erected to stop illegal parking, which had blocked a Fire & Rescue engine! No one should have to rely on their locally elected representative to act on their behalf, especially if they know you don’t agree with their politics!
I agree. Like yesterday,near sainsburys,there were cars parked up on the pavements,near jackie bakers,field,where football was being played,every other sunday.
You would solve the problem at this junction by extending the double yellow lines along Dumpton Park Drive where it meets Montefiore Avenue.
Even careful drivers have to pull out almost half way across the road just to see what is coming along Dumpton Park Drive due to parked cars obscuring the view.
Not just cars Thanetian Blind, try doing that on a bike, which has no reverse gear if a car coming at you at 70 mph!
This particular junction is indeed difficult to get out of as there are vehicles parked close to the junction restricting visibility and resulting in cars having to pull out across the road just to be able to see clearly. The speed along Dumpton Park Drive is usually way over the 30mph that it should be. This is typical across Thanet with many roads having vehicles traveling way over the legal limit.
Looking at the National statistics, Kent has the worst accident record in the Country.
The Thanet Way is the second-worst in the country.
The A256 and A254 are the 2 most dangerous roads in Thanet.
If you look at the distribution of accidents across Thanet, they are spread all over, indicating a general lack of driving skills and road conditions.
I have not noticed any change in the road policing ie speed traps, white line painting, repairs to road furniture when it is damaged, road signs, etc. It also seems obvious that school children are not trained in traffic awareness in terms of the number of bikes being ridden dangerously and those pesky illegal electric scooters. Traffic training and riding lessons should be a compulsory part of schooling as it was when I went to school many, many years ago.
No doubt KCC and TDC will argue that they are doing everything possible, but that usually means that they will have meetings and issue reports. Anything rather than actually tackling the issues.
One death is too many in any community. Until the same actions are taken as in air accidents ie corrective measures after each event, nothing is going to change.
I hope that the Dumpton Park drive community is successful in its efforts to make changes, and that accident prevention can be instigated across all of Thanet in a positive and proactive way.
https://www.thanet.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Corridor-Studies-Existing-Conditions-1.pdf
“Bikeability” lessons are offered to primary age children, but they’re not mandatory. Some children can’t actually ride bikes, and some don’t want to.
I agree that things should be done to improve road safety throughout Thanet. No regard whatsoever for double yellow lines. In Ramsgate today saw a coach and cars parked on the new road layout outside the tunnels. We need more wardens on patrol. Cars park on corners with no regard of blocking the view, and speeding is common place, along with tailgating. Don’t bother contacting your local councillor, mine didn’t even offer me the courtesy of a reply!
If you pilot a plane, navigate a ship or drive a train, you have to be highly trained in the first place, and subsequently receive refresher training.
To drive a tonne and a half of lethal machinery, you take a simple test once in your life, and that’s it. You can then hurtle round our roads and streets, adopting all sorts of bad practice, and carry on becoming a worse and worse driver for (almost) the rest of your days.
The government is loathe to impose penalties because most drivers are voters, a d no government wants to unnecessary upset its supporters.
Look at mobile phone usage: it’s obvious that using a mobile whilst driving can (and has) have deadly consequences. And yet the penalties for phoning whilst driving are trivial. Far better to confiscate and destroy both the phone and the car.