STREETLIGHTS will be turned back on at a junction where two children were killed in a crash and plans for other improvements are being discussed report the Local Democracy Reporter.
Essex County Council is expected to carry out the works in Ashlyns, Pitsea next month following the deaths of Darcie and Roman Casselden on February 1. The children were riding an e-scooter when they were hit by a car.
Pitsea councillors have been pushing for change since the crash. A public meeting is due to be held to address wider concerns around road safety. Gavin Callaghan, Labour leader of Basildon Council, said: “The Pitsea North West councillors and the Pitsea county councillors, with the cabinet member for highways over at Essex County Council. We asked them for a number of things, we put together a bit of an action plan that we asked them to commit to and I am pleased to say because of the work of those councillors, they have confirmed they are going to be conduction around 100 meters of new cabling along Ashlyns so they can fix all the streetlights, that are out in Ashlyns, particularly at the junction where this tragedy happened. We’re hopeful it may be delivered in April, so within the next eight weeks we may be able to get engineers on site and fix the cables so we can turn the streetlights back on.
“That is a real positive for the people of the Chalvedon Estate, Stokefelde, Plumleys and the people around there. We’re also looking at road traffic calming measures, there are costings I have asked for to look at some of those measures. We are also organising a public meeting they have agreed to come down to Pitsea for a public meeting to talk about road safety more generally because people have raised with us it’s not just Ashlyns, it’s Burn Mills, Ashfields, Tyfields, off of Rectory Road. The Pitsea councillors are on this, they are going to be sending a letter around to you to update you on what’s going on.”
A spokesman for Essex Highways said “Councillor Lee Scott, in his role as chair of the Safer Essex Roads Partnership (SERP), along with Councilor Tom Cunningham and Essex County Council officers, met with Basildon Council members on Wednesday. As part of this meeting the county council provided an update on street lighting repairs along Ashlyns. Work has already been undertaken to make temporary repairs to some streetlights and further work is being planned to repair more than 100 metres of street light cabling, which is expected to take place before the end of April.
“A number of safety measures were also presented to Basildon members for their consideration to improve safety along Ashlyns. These included the option to fund vehicle activated signs and speed indicator devices, for which the county council has agreed to provide estimated costs to Basildon members to consider, and provided details of some of the programmes SERP offer, such as a community speed watch programme and the Extra Eyes initiative, where residents can submit video footage of dangerous driving to Essex Police.
“The discussion made clear that road safety remains a priority for both Essex County Council and SERP, and we will continue to support and work with Basildon District Council on any further safety measures they wish to explore.”
