Newmarket couple ask for council’s help in campaign to make Fitzroy Street safer

Residents said they were told there would have to be a death before anything was done to improve safety in a Newmarket street.

Brin Hughes, who together with his wife Anne-Marie, has been campaigning for eight years to get traffic calming measures and a 20mph speed limit in Fitzroy Street, where they live, appealed for the support of the town council at a meeting on Monday.

The couple told councillors that two weeks previously they had spoken to police after a cyclist had been knocked off his bike and seriously injured by a car coming out of the Grosvenor Yard car park into Fitzroy Street.

“We raised the concerns we had about traffic speeds and safety and said we had not been successful in getting any positive action from Suffolk highways, “ said Mr Hughes, “to which the officer replied there will need to be a death before anything is done. We were horrified. If this is council policy then it is scandalous and should be made public and that is why we are here tonight.”

He said there were a number of issues he believed should be considered to make the street safer included a reduction in the speed limit to 20mph, and traffic calming measures similar to those recently installed in Newmarket’s Wood Ditton Road.

“Grosvenor Yard where the latest accident occurred, currently has no pavement for pedestrians and yet it is a major access route for pedestrians from the car park to the Kings Theatre and cinema,” said Mr Hughes. “This road is used as a major cut through for cars and especially taxis seeking to avoid the Waitrose and clock tower traffic lights and roundabout as they travel from Exning Road to The Avenue and the south side of the town.

“That road is simply not fit for such traffic,” said Mr Hughes.

“He told councillors he believed the entrance into the car park from Fitzroy Street should be
one way and had thought it had been made a condition of the planning permission given for
the development of the flats at the former De Niro’s night club and associated affordable
housing.

The meeting heard that a traffic order making the entrance to the car park from Fitzroy Street
and the exit on to the High Street had been confirmed by the highways authority some years
ago but the accompanying signs had never been put up.

Mr Hughes also said the collection of traffic speed data by speed indicator devices was flawed because they recorded all traffic speed including that which slowed down to a virtual halt to turn into the car park.

“The average speed will not represent the cars that accelerate to go only up or down Fitzroy Street,” he said.

Deputy town mayor Cllr John Harvey said: “We have tried to get Suffolk County Council to
do things in the town as there are lots of dangerous areas. We are told if we anything done
the town council would have to pay for an investigation and then if something were to be
done how would it be paid for ?”

He proposed the town council ask an engineer from Suffolk highways to come to Fitzroy Street to have a look at the issues and concerns raised while Cllr Jo McHugh said: “One accident is one too many.”