Lib Dem Councillor Acts to Save Lives after County Refuses

10.08.29pm GMT Sun 9th Nov 2008

Cllr Pauline Wilson puts up her home-made sign warning drivers of a dangerous bend on the Grunty Fen road.

Haddenham Liberal Democrat Councillor Pauline Wilson has erected home-made signs on a dangerous fen road where a grandmother died, because she is fed up waiting for the county council to take action.

Cllr Wilson fears more drivers could be killed this winter on the stretch of road at Grunty Fen which claimed the life of 59-year-old Margaret Thorne last February.

Mrs Thorne died when her car spun off the road at Witchford and landed in a ditch in dense fog.

"I am so incensed about this," said Cllr Wilson. "I have been asking county council officers to put up a sign on this dangerous bend but they have taken no action. I am not prepared to sit back and wait for another driver to die before anything is done.

"This road is a cut through for people driving from Haddenham to Witchford and Ely and in the winter it is treacherous. Drivers take this road because they want to avoid the dangerous Witcham Toll junction where the county council has also taken no action.

"How many people have to lose their lives and how many families have to be torn apart before the county council comes up with the small amount of money needed to make drivers aware of the danger?"

Cllr Wilson raised the issue at the Haddenham Neighbourhood Panel, of which the county council is a partner, after it refused to spend money on road signs.

"They can afford to spend millions on a guided bus scheme," added Cllr. Wilson, "but they won't use some of our council tax to make this road safer. This is appalling."