I am a resident of Potter Street CM17 and our street has become a virtual racetrack, with vehicles zooming past at speeds that are incompatible with residential safety. There are no traffic calming measures at all from the junction with Hillside up towards the Miller and Carter pub. This means that people can accelerate between  Prentice Place shops and  the war memorial with nothing to slow them down.  We have a very busy junction with the Church Road where numerous children cross to get to school at Passmores, Potter Street Primary and Holy Cross.  The road is meant to be a 30mph limit and then at the shops it is a 20mph limit but this is not observed by many drivers. 

There is then a further busy junction between Potter street and Harlow common road where we have had numerous accidents as people try to turn right and get hit from the side because it is a blind junction.

It is only a matter of time before there is a fatality. This whole situation becomes even worse when there is an accident on the M11 and everyone then uses it as a rat run to avoid the M11. 

According to the World Health Organization, a child hit by a car traveling at 30mph has a 90% chance of survival, while if the car is going 40mph the survival rate drops to 60% (WHO). Therefore, lowering the speed limit to 20mph along the whole  of Potter Street can significantly enhance the safety of our community and help prevent serious accidents. 

I call upon Essex Highways and Essex Police to work with us  to enforce lower speed limits and provide speed cameras and physical road improvements to slow the speed of vehicles on Potter Street to protect residents, and especially our children.

The photo was taken of the accident that occurred on Potter Street on 13.7.26.