SKIPP Press Release (13-12-11)

Safety before politics

The logic of Southend Borough Council’s Andrew Meddle concerning the matter of the desperately needed pedestrian crossing in the Seafront Shared Space zone is seriously flawed. Commenting on the petition to be submitted to the Council by Jill Allan-King OBE calling for the installation of the crossing, Mr Meddle claimed that a crossing would decrease safety on the front.

Mr Meddle claims that a crossing would encourage drivers to speed on the front. Quite why he believes this is difficult to fathom, unless of course you take into account the political aspect and the Council’s refusal to admit that the entire concept of shared space is flawed.

The situation as it is currently on the seafront is extremely dangerous for all pedestrians. If you wish to cross you have to step into the road and trust that vehicles will stop and allow you to cross. However, for the blind and visually impaired the situation is even worse. They have been excluded from our seafront. It is simply too dangerous for a blind person to consider using the seafront; how could they possibly know if the traffic had stopped?

Mr Meddle’s claim of increased risks is based on the theory that a crossing would encourage drivers to speed up after the crossing; of course this isn’t a problem currently as the cars don’t slow down in the first place. This fact is borne out by the Council’s installation of speed cameras on City Beech, after all if cars were travelling slowly through the zone and allowing pedestrians to cross then there surely wouldn’t be a need for expensive average speed cameras.

The installation of a crossing is a matter of extreme urgency and it is abhorrent that our council is putting its short term political interests above that of public safety. Especially considering that a crossing could be installed at no cost to the tax payer. Olympus Keymed has offered to pay for the crossing, but the Council have refused their offer.

The SKIPP Committee

Patsy Link

Sheena Walker

Mark Sharp