SPEEDING cars driven in the wrong direction on a one-way road near a school are putting children at risk, families claim.
More than 60 worried parents have signed a petition calling for the introduction of speed bumps in Waverley Road, Chingford, but claim they have been told by Waltham Forest Council they would be too expensive.
Beverley Reader, 44, lives in the road and is concerned for her two children, who attend nearby Rushcroft School, and pupils at Chase Lane Primary School in York Road.
The road is used by many children at certain times of the day due to the proximity of the schools, but she said speeding drivers often ignore the one-way rule, while lorry drivers use the road as a rat run to avoid a busy junction in Hall Lane.
She said: "They come hurtling down it the wrong way like they're in Brand's Hatch.
"It leaves me scared for my kids' safety, I don't even like walking down the road myself. How many people will get hurt before the council takes notice of this?
"It makes me very angry. What price do they value a child's life?"
In the last three years there has been one minor, non-speed related accident on Waverley Avenue. The council did not give figures for any time period beyond that.
Miss Reader said she contacted the council's highways department and was told the funds were not available to introduce traffic-calming measures.
The nearest crossing is in Hall Lane but Miss Reader said only speed bumps would solve the problems in Waverley Avenue.
The council's cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Clyde Loakes, said: "Whether or not traffic calming measures are implemented is governed by public safety and local need rather than cost.
"Given there are parts of the borough with more worrying statistics it makes sense for us to focus our efforts on those in the first instance.
"I know that the statistics and residents' own experiences might not necessarily match up, however, and I think it would be a good idea for residents to raise this issue with their police representatives at their next community ward forum to see what solutions or alternatives to traffic calming they might be able to suggest."
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