Resident calls for safety measures to protect Battle pedestrians

Justin Lay, of Northwood, St Mary’s Villas, Battle, first raised the issue of pedestrian safety when he sat on Battle Town Council four years ago.

Mr Lay was prompted to revisit the issue when a mother of three died after she was hit by a car, in March 2017, and a young boy was left with serious injuries after a collision in March 2018 – both in the town.

Mr Lay said: “The town has issues with cars mounting curbs as the council is continuously replacing knocked over bollards and lamp posts.

“It’s become a theme that someone dies once a year from being struck by a car in Battle.”

Mr Lay urged East Sussex Highways to implement traffic calming measures, such as zebra crossings near Battle Hill, to reduce the speed of vehicles in the town.

He also called for ‘higher curbs on the streets and more bollards’ to be put in place to prevent motorists from mounting the curb.

He added: “If you look at the curb on Battle Hill there is hardly one at all and it feels dangerous when walking to the high street or to the train station.

“There is a lot traffic in the area due to Tesco but most people seem to accelerate up Battle Hill after the roundabout at Lower Lake.

“We need new retaining curbs installed on the streets that will bounce cars back into the road if they try to mount the curb. You see them in London where they are about 20cm tall and do work well.”

David Furness, the chairman of Battle Town Council, said the council ‘fully support’ a zebra crossing at the foot of Battle Hill.

An East Sussex County Council spokesman said: “We did consider requests for a pedestrian crossing at this location to be included in our programme of transport improvements for the coming financial year.

“We have to prioritise our very limited resources on areas where the need is greatest and unfortunately schemes at other locations were assessed to have higher priority on this occasion.

“However we will carry out a further study during the coming year to assess whether improvements for pedestrian safety can be made in this area.”