Councilors from Ramsgate Town, Thanet Borough and Kent County Councils held a public meeting for people in Sir Moses Montefiore concerned about road safety following a recent death and other crashes in Dumpton Park Drive.
The meeting will take place in the back room of the Racing Greyhound pub on Monday March 21 between 6-7pm.
Relevant representatives from organizations such as Holy Trinity School and a residential home were invited. A police representative will be present.
A call for traffic calming measures has been issued following the death of a cyclist in a collision in January. Since then, there has been another collision at the same location, causing damage to several cars, but no injuries.
Resident Bob Barra, has amassed an evidence file that records previous accidents and frivolous correspondence with KCC.
The Kent County Highways Department was invited to attend the meeting, but in a response letter, councilors were advised: ‘We are receiving many requests for the implementation of improvements on the motorway, and all requests are reviewed and prioritized.
“We use an evidence-based approach to prioritize investments in our highway improvement projects to make roads and streets safer. Our first priority is to check if there is a pattern of injury accident records over the past three years that could be addressed by engineering methods.
“As a result of our verifications, we have established that at this location there is no such scheme; it is therefore very difficult to prioritize this site for corrective measures in the event of an accident in relation to the locations of the county where a pattern of incidents occurs.
“Implementing road improvements in known collision hotspots remains our priority. At this stage we have no work scheduled at this location, although we will of course continue to monitor the site.
“While investigations are still ongoing into the very sad incident at the junction of Montefiore Avenue and Dumpton Park Drive, early indications are that the vehicle pulled out of the junction into the cyclist’s path and the excessive speed of the vehicle along Dumpton Park Drive was not a factor in this accident.
Councilors present will be Pat Makinson from City Council, Pat Moore from District and Karen Constantine from County Council.
Cllr Constantine said: ‘I was very disappointed on behalf of the local residents that the Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority (KMFRA) also refused to send someone to meet the affected residents. It’s frankly a lousy treat, especially after a death, when people are wondering how to improve road safety.
