Liberal Democrat councillors are stepping up their pressure on Haringey Council to improve road safety in Priory Road, Muswell Hill following two separate accidents within eight days of each other at the end of March. Both incidents involved school children who were crossing the busy road.

The Lib Dems are pushing for two new crossings, backing the Warner Estate Residents’ Association’s calls for a pedestrian crossing to be installed by Danvers Road on Priory Road as well as pressing for another crossing point by Park Avenue North. At last month’s Council meeting the Association presented a petition with 841 signatures expressing their concerns for elderly people and parents with push chairs and prams who were unable to dash across the busy road.

Muswell Hill councillors Lynne Featherstone and Gail Engert have been pressing to obtain funding for the new crossings after the Labour-run council controversially said “no” to funding them. They believe that Haringey Council has not done enough to look for funding, estimated at £80,000 each.

Cllr Featherstone, who attended a meeting earlier this week with the Council, proposed that any negotiations with a supermarket for a store on the Hornsey Waterworks site should include an agreement to pay for two new crossings to compensate for the increase in traffic that the store would create.

Cllr Featherstone comments:

“Local residents should not be put at risk on this dangerous stretch of road through Haringey’s inability to fund vital safety measures or its inability to levy money from developers”.

Cllr Engert adds:

“The two recent incidents involving school children have again highlighted the importance of the crossings for Priory Road. We are not convinced that the Council is taking this issue seriously and we will continue to campaign for new crossings to make this road safer.”