logo
Milton Keynes council to consult on safety of road after campaign

Milton Keynes council to consult on safety of road after campaign

BBC News5 days ago
A council is to consult on plans to make a village road safer after campaigners described it as an "accident waiting to happen".Dubbed a "classic rat run", Walton Road in the village of Wavendon, Milton Keynes, has a S-bend with "two blind spots" which locals fear is unsafe.Milton Keynes City Council has been presented with a 230-strong petition calling for safety measures, and is considering options including a one-way system, speed humps - and closure.A spokesperson confirmed the authority would "install a bespoke device to alert motorists if there are pedestrians detected" despite "no incidents being reported to them since records began in 1980".
The device is due to be installed next month and the authority said it will consult on options once "they have some weeks of safety data from the device".
Trevor and Myra Hutton from the Walton Road Safety Group were among 20 residents who took the petition to a council meeting, but Mr Hutton said they were disappointed with the response.He felt "the council still did not really get it" and that "they have been pushed into pledging to start the consultation".Mrs Hutton said the S-bend had "two blind spots and if you are on them and a car comes whizzing round, you don't stand a chance".She added the road would only be safer if a footpath was added.Conservative councillor David Hopkins said it was a "classic rat run" situation where drivers were seeking alternatives to the city's grid road system.He said a lot of incidents on the road were "scrapes and bumps" but did not want "to see a child or adult lose their life to prompt the council into doing something".
Wavendon is a village on the south-east edge of Milton Keynes that was featured in the Domesday Book.It is home to just a couple of hundred people, but is only two miles away from the Glebe Meadows development of almost 3,000 homes, and one of the largest distribution parks in the UK at Magna Park, where Amazon, John Lewis and Waitrose have warehouses.According to the Walton Road Residents Road Safety Group, between five and seven cars per minute drove through the S-bend on the morning school run, equating to more than 400 cars per hour.Parish council records suggest road safety has been a concern there for more than 30 years and the bend itself was considered so challenging that it was used by John Lewis for its driver training programme.
Nadege Pierron told the BBC she had to wheel her pram up on to people's driveways to avoid cars on the bend.She said it was "scary for my daughter to walk as I always have to grab her" and added that her "eldest daughter uses the road to go walk to school and has nearly been crushed between two vans".Cliff Riley has lived on the road for four years and described the increase in traffic as "significant".He said when he tries to pull out onto the road he "personally gets abuse on a weekly basis from people flying around the corner".Amy Bicknell added she had "been nearly run over on the bend a few times because cars come flying around bend all the time".She wanted the road closed and said it could happen "if enough people say yes, because there are other routes around here" they could use instead.
Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Now that even South Park is mocking Trump over Epstein, he knows he's facing a scandal he can't control: ANDREW NEIL
Now that even South Park is mocking Trump over Epstein, he knows he's facing a scandal he can't control: ANDREW NEIL

Daily Mail​

time7 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Now that even South Park is mocking Trump over Epstein, he knows he's facing a scandal he can't control: ANDREW NEIL

Donald Trump touched down in Scotland last night, the controversy swirling around the so-called ' Jeffrey Epstein files' in such hot pursuit that it threatens to disturb what is essentially a five-day golfing holiday and plunge him into something of a pickle. The President's MAGA base of true believers refuses to accept the official reasons why the files on the late notorious paedophile can't be made public.

SARAH VINE: The reason so many of us feel at the end of our tether is that the political class have never let us have a truly honest debate about mass immigration
SARAH VINE: The reason so many of us feel at the end of our tether is that the political class have never let us have a truly honest debate about mass immigration

Daily Mail​

time7 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

SARAH VINE: The reason so many of us feel at the end of our tether is that the political class have never let us have a truly honest debate about mass immigration

When 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, armed with a 20cm long chef's knife, walked into a Taylor Swift-themed dance class and began stabbing teachers and little girls, he not only took the lives of three innocents – six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar. He also triggered a groundswell of resentment, confusion and anger that, one year on, has not abated. The resulting riots, fuelled by misinformation and, in particular, the erroneous assumption that Rudakubana was an asylum seeker (he was not, although his parents had come to Britain from Rwanda), exposed an ugly streak of anti-immigrant feeling.

Gregg Wallace: Ex-MasterChef host 'sorry' but says he's 'not a groper'
Gregg Wallace: Ex-MasterChef host 'sorry' but says he's 'not a groper'

BBC News

time7 minutes ago

  • BBC News

Gregg Wallace: Ex-MasterChef host 'sorry' but says he's 'not a groper'

Former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has said he is "so sorry" to anyone he hurt, but insisted that he is "not a groper, a sex pest or a flasher".In a new interview with The Sun, the TV presenter also defended his sacked co-host John Torode, saying he is "not a racist".Wallace was sacked earlier this month after a report upheld 45 allegations about his behaviour on the programme, including one of unwelcome physical contact and three of being in a state of was also axed after a claim against him using "an extremely offensive racist term" was upheld. He has said he has "no recollection" of the incident. The inquiry, conducted by an independent law firm, was ordered by MasterChef's production company Banijay in the wake of a BBC News investigation last year, which first revealed claims of misconduct against then, more than 50 people have come forward to BBC News with claims against include allegations he groped one MasterChef worker at a wrap party and pulled his trousers down in front of another. Gregg Wallace sacked as 50 more people make claims Wallace faces backlash over autism defence MasterChef crisis: Wallace and Torode were 'never friends' Wallace 'sorry' after 45 claims against him upheld The majority of substantiated claims against Wallace related to inappropriate sexual language and humour, but also culturally insensitive or racist his first interview since being sacked, the presenter acknowledged that he had said things that "offended people, that weren't socially acceptable and perhaps they felt too intimidated or nervous to say anything at the time."I understand that now - and to anyone I have hurt, I am so sorry."He indicated his background was to blame for those comments, as a former greengrocer from Peckham working in an environment that was "jovial and crude".But he added: "I'm not a groper. People think I've been taking my trousers down and exposing myself - I am not a flasher."People think I'm a sex pest. I am not."Wallace said that one of the upheld claims against him related to a widely reported incident in which he had allegedly walked around MasterChef's set naked with a sock on his that incident, he said that there were no contestants on set, and just four of his friends from the show outside his dressing room door."I was getting changed to go to a black tie event, a charity event. I put my bow tie on and my shirt. It's only them outside the door. I put the sock on, opened the door, went, 'Wahey!' and shut the door again."The people interviewed were either amused or bemused. Nobody was distressed," he claimed. Autism defence Ahead of the report's publication earlier this month, Wallace posted a now-deleted statement on Instagram in which he appeared to link the misconduct allegations he was facing to his recent autism led to a backlash from charities and groups working with disabled people. One charity told BBC News that autism is "not a free pass for bad behaviour", while other groups warned that such remarks risked stigmatising the autistic his interview on Friday night, Wallace spoke again about his diagnosis, saying: "I know I struggle to read people. I know people find me weird. Autism is a disability, a registered disability."He also repeated a claim that he "never [wears] pants", saying: "It's not sexualised. It's hypersensitivity - that happens with autism." Last week, Wallace's co-host Torode was sacked after an allegation of using a severely offensive racist term was News has since revealed that the alleged incident took place on the set of MasterChef in has said any racist language is "wholly unacceptable".Addressing the claim against his co-host, Wallace said: "I've known John for 30 years and he is not a racist."And as evidence of that, I'll show you the incredible diversity of the people that he has championed, MasterChef winners, over the years. There is no way that man is a racist. No way. And my sympathies go out to John because I don't want anybody to go through what I've been through."But he added that he had unfollowed Torode and his wife Lisa Faulkner on social media, saying: "We never really did get on that well."We're two very, very different characters."Earlier this week, the BBC announced that a new series of MasterChef, which was recorded before Wallace and Torode were sacked, will still be broadcast as planned, on BBC One and of the women who came forward with claims against Wallace have said they did not think the new series should be former MasterChef worker, who claims he groped her, told BBC News the decision to go ahead showed "a blatant disregard for the people who have come forward".The BBC said it had taken the decision "after careful consideration and consultation with the contestants".It added it has not yet taken a decision on what to do with the completed celebrity series and Christmas special.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store