REDBRIDGE: 'We love learner drivers,' rival residents group claims (From This Is Local London)

REDBRIDGE: 'We love learner drivers,' rival residents group claims

1:48pm Tuesday 10th February 2009 in News By Daniel Binns

A RESIDENTS association in Wanstead has hit back at a campaign by some households to ban learner drivers from the streets of South Woodford.

A group of people living in the affluent Firs Estate have been fighting for nearly nine years to get the council to ban rookie motorists from their once quiet roads, which they say are causing accidents and congestion.

Last week council officers recommended not to install ‘access only’ signs in the area, much to the fury of hundreds of people on the estate.

But now neighbours living on the nearby Counties Estate in Wanstead, which also attracts learners, have said they want the people of Redbridge to know they love the learners, and have given their full support to the council’s decision not to ban them.

Resident Association Chair Helen Zammett said: “There’s two distinct advantages to learner drivers.

"Firstly they act as a burglary deterrent. Most burglaries happen during the day and this is when the learners are all driving about. It’s been shown in the area where they have learner drivers the crime rate is much lower.

“Secondly, they act as traffic calming measures. Boy racers are not going along our streets, the police don’t catch anyone speeding round here simply because no-one does. They are just something that has to be tolerated.”

Fellow counties resident Phillip Carnelley said: “learner drivers can be a bit irritating if you’re in a hurry and you’ve got a row of cars trying to do a three-point turn, but you just have to put up with it as a necessary evil, people have to learn somewhere.

“Anything that slows the traffic down is a good thing.

“I don’t see why the first estate should get a special privilege. If learners were banned there they would only be displaced to us.”

But Eddie Blackwell, who has spear-headed the campaign against the driving schools, said: “If they love the learners on the counties estate they can keep them. If they had the accidents like we’ve had they wouldn’t like them and they wouldn’t have them.

“If there’s a burglary going on are learner drivers going to get out of their cars to stop them? Of course not.“

The matter will be discussed further at the second part of the rescheduled area one committee meeting on February Thursday 19 at Wanstead Church School at 7.15pm.