I sit at home in fear a car will crash into my house - but Lancashire County Council won't do anything

Families living in Laurelbank, Moulden Brow, Hoghton, want the speed limit lowering from 40mph to 30mph and speed deterrents, after suffering a sting of accidents involving their cars and homes.

In several instances, cars have been written off, and garden walls - only separated from the main A674 road into Blackburn by a 1.9m footpath - have been obliterated.

One resident, said: “It is only a matter of time before a car comes through someone’s house, or worse, kills someone. I am one of the fortunate ones as I only had part of my wall knocked down by my neighbours car when someone collided with it, sending it through a neighbour’s fence and into my wall. The car in question carried on out of control only coming to a halt at number one, some 80 metres away.”

He added that he was nearly hit while crossing the road when two cars were racing one another at speeds he estimates at 60mph, and is forced to sleep with ear plugs in as it is the only way to get a decent night's sleep due to the noise of the road.

Another resident, whose son’s car was written off after being hit by a passing vehicle, said: “It’s affecting all of us, I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t had a wall down or car damaged. We should be able to park our cars outside our houses without worrying, but we sit watching TV and wait for a bang. If someone was on the footpath when one of these incidents occured, it doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Supported by Hoghton Parish Council, 20 residents recently submitted a petition to Lancashire County Council highways bosses, but they were told that there were “no clear speeding issues which would justify lowering the speed limit at this time”.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council told the Post: "A petition highlighting residents' concerns on this road on this issue has been submitted to our highways teams in January. However, the current road layout, injury collision record and prevailing average speeds at this location would not meet criteria for a reduced speed limit, and would also require significant traffic calming and interventions to successfully enforce.

"We receive many requests for road safety schemes and our budgets are prioritised towards locations where injury collisions occur most frequently."

Response

Residents say the LCC speed records do not accurately reflect the true nature of what is happening on the road, as drivers slow down when they see people recording their speed, and they claim that several of the recordings were carried out in peak conditions when there was congestion on the road.