In the past 10 years, in Great Wakering alone, there have been nearly 80 recorded traffic accidents, of which 18 were serious and 2 were fatal.
We do have a problem with speeding and dangerous driving, and I am a huge supporter of the local speed awareness campaigns and speeding cameras run by local volunteers. Black spots include Southend Road, in particular by Morley's Nuersery; Poynters Lane, opposite Wakering Road; St. Nicholas Church by New Road; and the High Street, in particular by the Co-op. The speed limit at Morleys and parts of Poynters Lane needs to be dropped to 40mph. Calming measures and a high visibility "sharp bend" sign needs to be put up along the church railings (once the railings are finally restored!)
Bad parking is contributing to these problems. For example, a young man was seriously injured on his moped outside the Co-op a few years ago. Parking outside the funeral directors creates a blind spot and makes it difficult for cars to pull out of the Co-op car park, and for delivery lorries to get in. Following the accident, the Parish Council had the yellow lines extended up to the Chinese takeaway, however people consistently ignore them and continue to park there, even when the Co-op car park is empty!
I would propose to have the kerb-line extended out into the road to completely prevent parking there.
We also have a problem with on-kerb parking. If people didn't park on the kerb it would cause many of our back roads to become unpassable by emergency services and bin lorries. However some people are parking so far up onto the kerb that it is blocking people in wheelchairs. Maybe one solution could be to allow on-kerb parking, as they do in Southend, but to put markers in place to show the limit of how far they should be parking. This is something I would like to put out to public consultation to see how people feel about it.
And there is also a problem with parking around the school and neighbouring roads where parents drop their children off and pick them up. Residents often complain that cars are parked dangerously along the road and over driveways. And children are trying to cross the road between the badly parked cars. In addition to measures such as bollards and signs, maybe the Parish Council could look at the re-introduction of "Walking Buses" - not only would that ease the parking a little, but it would also be good for children, walking to school.
