‘Village Way’ is a long straight road with parking spaces on both sides. Since being a long road, it has a pedestrian cut through to a local school (Harris Beckenham) which is opposite Whitmore road, and this cut through is used very regularly by students and members of the general public.
However, it has been raised that it is an area of concern for parents and residents of Beckenham because it is a busy road with no crossing platform available and people are now demanding that the council implement a safe crossing platform nearby before someone is killed or seriously injured.
A petition was started by the Bromley Liberal Democrats in November and the council are now reassessing the safety of village way since there was also a motorcyclist who died after a crash with a car on the road in November. Their successful campaign is ‘Safer to school, Safer for all’ There have also been suggestions that the speed limit on village way should be decreased.
Elizabeth Fisher, a resident of Beckenham who has 2 children that go to nearby local schools thinks that it is ‘unsafe and dangerous to put a short cut route in place with no safe way of accessing it’. She also says that ‘the council have been quiet to inform the public that there will be implements to increase the safety of the area’.
Like Mrs. Fisher, Eliot Palmer also discusses his opinions on this matter. He claims that ‘the nearby schools have pestered the council for something to happen- They even said they would contribute to the costs’.
-Eleonora Broden-Barbareau
