More than 350 people have signed a petition calling for a main road into Haddington to be made safer amid claims that traffic concerns have been ignored for seven years.
A petition backed by residents of Dunbar Road and surrounding streets claims East Lothian Council repeatedly failed to take action over the road, which has no pedestrian crossings and has become ‘dangerous.’
New housing has also caused increasing volumes of traffic, the petition claims.
It calls for action to be taken to stop drivers parking on the main road and using it as a ‘pit stop; with claims vehicles have parked overnight while people sleep in them.
Initially lodged by petitioner Shirley Bisset, the petition states that it seeks to “make Dunbar Road safer for everyone, particularly residents living on Abbots View, Riverside Drive, Artillery Park, etc."
A report ,which will go to East Lothian Council’s petitions and community empowerment committee this week, says “the petitioner contends that there has been a significant increase in artic lorries, tractor traffic, construction traffic, speeding, and dangerous public parking, partly caused by an increase in traffic from new housing developments, and by deliveries to and from local shops, farms, and quarries.
“She states that Dunbar Road is overused when compared to West Road, and that the 20mph speed limit is not adhered to.“The petitioner also contends that the road is not wide enough for larger vehicles such as artic lorries, tractors, buses, and construction traffic when cars are parked on both sides of the road.”
It adds: “The petitioner highlights that nothing has been done to upgrade Dunbar Road to cope with the increase in traffic, particularly heavy artic traffic.
"She states that Dunbar Road and Hardgate have become dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians, due to speeding and a lack of crossings, and she highlights that there is not enough space to allow 1.5 metres to
overtake cyclists.”
The council argued that allowing parking on both sides of the road helped to slow traffic on the road, however the report said the petitioner disagreed with that view.
She said that Dunbar Road was one of a number of roads into Haddington which had become the main one, particularly when it came to artic lorries and other large vehicles, and she said on one occasion she counted 11 tractors passing her house carrying potatoes before 7.30am in the morning.
A council traffic counter exercise carried out on 2019 stated an average of 8,219 vehicles used the road daily.
The petition which has 356 signatures will be put before the committee on Thursday.
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