Campaigners put council under pressure to improve safety at ‘dangerous’ Littlebury crossing

Campaigners are holding their breath to see whether safety can be improved at a crossing described as an “accident waiting to happen”.

Essex Highways has now said the give way sign at the junction near Littlebury, linking Royston Lane and Strethall Road, will be repainted later this month, following a number of complaints.

But lobbyists are sceptical of the promise.

“Action speaks louder than words,” said district and county councillor Robert Chambers, whose ward, Wendens Loft, borders the crossroads.

“Where we have a situation like that, where it’s a very small job that wouldn’t take very long, please do it before a fatality occurs.”

Two weeks ago, Littlebury Green resident Rebecca Inman was going to work in the morning when a driver in a small van shot across the junction when she was just 15 metres away from the crossing.

“It wouldn’t have been many more seconds until we’d have crashed,” said Ms Inman, who was involved in a serious accident at the same crossing in 2009, when a driver also failed to see the markings and came straight across the junction, colliding with her car and sending both vehicles into fields either side of the road.

“It was pretty scary, and it could have been much worse,” she said.

The lines were repainted soon after the accident, but more than five years on, they have already faded and there are fears the junction, popular with runners and cyclists, is a death-trap.

“It’s an accident waiting to happen”, said Littlebury councillor Jan Menell, who has been campaigning for better visibility at the crossing for months.

Cllr Eddie Johnson, cabinet member for highways maintenance, said: “Our engineers visited the crossroads at the junction of Royston Lane and Strethall Road to investigate the reported worn carriageway markings. Relining work has been programmed for February.”