South West Bedfordshire MP, Andrew Selous, this morning accompanied a young mother from Bidwell West over the crossings and along the pavement of Bedford Road into Houghton Regis, which is a route that many parents with children have to undertake on a daily basis.
Commenting, Andrew Selous MP said:
“I am very grateful to my constituent for asking me to walk this route with her. There are two road crossings which are very close to blind bends which are scary to cross, particularly as a very large number of vehicles were clearly travelling well in excess of 30 miles an hour. There is an absence of speed limit signs on this section of the road, and we clearly need much better speed enforcement to make this road safe for pedestrians. The pavement is extremely narrow and is the original pavement left over from when this road had many fewer people walking up and down it before the Bidwell West development started to be built.
It is welcome to see that some of the brambles have been cut back along the pavement, but the pavement does need to be made wider to make it safe, particularly with some traffic passing at excessive speeds right next to parents with buggies.
I was also very concerned about the unreliability of some of the local bus services and particularly upset to learn that the young mother that I accompanied this morning had to give up her Master’s course in Luton because of the unreliability of the bus service when travelling with her young son.
I have already written to Central Bedfordshire Council to raise my safety concerns for pedestrians on Bedford Road a number of times and we need to look again at the available Section 106 money to improve pedestrian safety. Bedford Road is the connecting artery between this huge new development and the centre of Houghton Regis, and it cannot be left in this state. I am also taking up the concerns about the reliability of local bus services with the companies responsible.”