Residents of a street on the Lakes Estate occupied the road outside their houses at the weekend, protesting about the lack of rat-running cars whizzing past their houses.
One local, who preferred to remain anonymous, but we'll call "Musey", told me, "The situation is becoming intolerable, for more than a fortnight now we've been deprived of the stress and excitement of worrying about our kids being hit by a car, and the street doesn't smell like it usually does either. I've had to go all the way down to the North Circ to fill my lungs with proper city air."
Fortunately, the residents will get some relief soon, as the work to create continuous pavements across the Aldermans Hill end of Lakeside Road and Old Park Road is nearing completion. However, it will then be the turn of people living in other Lakes Estate road to suffer. And Musey is also worried that the situation won't return to full normality, as the continuous pavement might act as a deterrent to cars to turn into his street. "It's quite outrageous. By building the pavement across the end of the road the Council is risking the scenario that drivers will be forced to wait while pedestrians exercise their right to priority while walking along Aldermans Hill. It would be quite intolerable if car drivers had to start following the rules in the Highway Code - it's a point of pride that as soon as we pass our test we throw that stupid little book straight in the bin. If things go on like this, they'll start enforcing speed limits next!"
