PEDESTRIANS are being forced to ‘take their life in their hands’ when crossing a busy Loughton road, residents say.


Motorists and walkers are calling on the council to move the zebra crossing at the junction of Rectory Lane and Golding’s Hill, after construction site fencing left walkers struggling to negotiate a strip of pavement too narrow for pushchairs or mobility scooters.


Driver Brian Dean, of Hillyfields, said he had witnessed a near-miss at the crossing on Sunday (July 22).


“A lady was waiting to cross where the panels are and the lorry came round the corner and he hit the fencing there. I just heard the woman shouting,” said Mr Dean, 67.


“The most sensible thing to have done would have been to shut the crossing completely. It’s dangerous on that crossing even without the panels. People shouldn’t have to stand in the road.


“It’s an accident waiting to happen.”


The positioning of the three crossings close to the busy junction has caused concern among locals for many years.


In 2010, 76-year-old Walter Morris died after being struck by a bus on the crossing in Church Hill. Bus driver Nseka Lufua, 43, of New Brent Street, Hendon, was later sentenced to six months in prison at for causing death by careless driving.

Angela Patel, owner of Newsbox in Church Hill, was first on the scene after Mr Morris was hit and later rallied Essex County Council to improve road safety.


She said: “It got to the point where I came away thinking, it’s awful that Wally died, but I was banging at a brick wall. They’re the ones who can change it, but nothing changed.”


“Nobody ever has any time anymore. It’s really about educating drivers.”


Pensioner Dorothy Banks, of Hillyfields, said: “You take your life in your hands on that crossing. You have a job getting across this road anyway. I don’t know who decided to block the pedestrian crossing off. There’s a tiny little path there, but you can’t walk on that.”

Young mum Lisa Stock, 31, of England’s Lane, added: “It’s just too close to the bend, I’ve always thought that. Even when you’re going at 10 miles an hour, it’s not enough space to stop in time.”


John Irons is a manager at construction company Brennan – the firm behind the renovation of offices on the site. He said the emergency panels had been erected to prevent a wall from collapsing and would remain in place for five to six weeks.

But he added Essex County Council had ‘insisted’ the crossing remain open: “They said to close the crossing off would have caused traffic gridlock. It would have been chaos.”


An council spokesperson said, “We’d like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by these works, and we take the issue of safety very seriously.

"We will be taking steps with the company involved to improve safety for pedestrians near the zebra crossing while building work is taking place.

"As part of this we will also review whether there is a case for moving the pedestrian crossing further away from the roundabout.”

Click here to follow the Epping Forest Guardian on Twitter