Road safety measures to be considered after Southsea nursery wall is demolished twice by cars

In the space of just two years the Rainbow Corner Day Nursery, in Southsea, has had its outer wall knocked down twice by drivers who were either speeding or drink driving in the early hours of the morning.

Following a petition signed by almost 600 people, Portsmouth City Council is now set to consider £40,000-worth of improvements to Victoria Road North including bollards on the corner pavement and 'bend in the road' signs.

It is also proposed chevrons will be installed on the corner and ‘slow’ markings will be painted on the road.

The owner of the nursery, Lucy Whitehead, said she reached a point where she thought 'enough is enough' following the most recent incident in August.

She said: 'I started a petition to try to get safety measures in place. We still haven't had the wall rebuilt because it has to go through insurance and we wanted to make sure this wouldn't happen again.

'Understandably parents were really concerned. When they came in the next day they wanted to know whether their children were going to be safe playing in the playground.

'Luckily both incidents happened in the early hours of the morning. I think when it's dark, if people are not expecting a bend they can pick up quite a bit of speed along there.

'When it happened the first time we went to the council to ask for safety improvements and got turned down. Then it reached a point where we said “enough is enough”.’

In a report to be considered at a transport meeting next week Tristan Samuels, the council's director of regeneration, said: 'The proposed speed road safety infrastructure would promote positive sustainability and environmental impacts through encouraging safer driver behaviour, reduce the risk of road collisions and their associated economic costs and offer greater protection and confidence in the road safety.'

The £40,000 cost of the scheme would be funded by the council's neighbourhood improvement fund.

A decision on the measures will be made at a virtual traffic and transport council meeting on Thursday, December 17.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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