Residents of a north Colchester crescent have condemned plans to install traffic calming measures in their road.

People living in Defoe Crescent, Mile End, say the street, linking Nayland Road and Mill Road, has become a rat-run for drivers heading from Great Horkesley and Boxted.

Colchester Council wants to put in six speed bumps, but residents, demanding the creation of a cul-de-sac, claim they will not be enough to slow vehicles down.

Last May mother-of-three Joanne Mason was killed at the junction opposite Defoe Crescent, and residents say that was one of a number of accidents.

Vanessa Sexton was walking with her son Kane, then three, when he was in a collision with a car turning into Defoe Crescent.

The accident, nearly six years ago, prompted her to join the Rainbow playgroup she now runs.

Doors at its Methodist Church hall home are firmly bolted to prevent the 20 under-fives escaping on to the Nayland Road/Defoe Crescent junction.

Mrs Sexton, a mother-of-three who lives in the crescent, said she has had to stand in the middle of the road to help children cross.

"At any time of the day, it is very busy around here," she said. "For the safety of my children and others, I thought it would be more sensible to cut it right off from traffic. I cannot see that traffic humps are going to make an awful lot of difference."

Another resident, retired police officer Mike Saunders, suffered a broken leg in an accident there in 1991.

He claims motorists use the crescent to dodge traffic lights at the nearby Dog and Pheasant and the Mile End Road speed camera.

He said: "We campaigned to our local Labour councillors for over ten years, and year after year they promised swift action.

"Many of the residents feel, as I do, that it took a death before anything was done," he added.

"Our road surface is breaking up as a result of the amount of traffic, and I therefore ask both the highways department and our local councillors: 'What happened to the original 71 per cent of residents who asked for the cul-de-sac?'."

Barry Layzell, Colchester's head of highways, said proposals creating a cul-de-sac drew objections from the emergency services, bus companies and Essex County Council, as well as 51 of the crescent's 113 households.

The subsequent speed bump plan, costing around £65,000, is due to start in late spring.

He said: "This scheme is the council's highest in terms of traffic calming measures, and we are eager to press ahead with the scheme as soon as possible."

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