‘This can’t go on’: Homerton residents call for safer crossings on road where two children were hit by a car

Members of the Kenworthy Road Safety Community Campaign. Photograph: KRSCC

Homerton residents are demanding better safety measures on a “problematic” road where two children were recently hit by a car.

The children, understood to be aged five or six, were treated for minor injuries at hospital after being struck on Kenworthy Road as they were walking to school with their mother.

Katy Beale, who has lived in Homerton for 18 years and has two children of primary school age, said it was an accident “waiting to happen”.

She said this sentiment has been shared by the 80 members of a residents’ WhatsApp group who were already worried about their children’s safety after a number of “near misses”.

Hackney Council introduced two low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) separated by Homerton High Street in June 2020.

Beale said that while the LTN has made side streets in Homerton quieter, “people are still whizzing through Kenworthy Road to get elsewhere, which isn’t great for the local residents”.

Marcus Lyall has lived on Hassett Road for more than a decade.

He said the local LTN encourages his nine-year-old son to cycle and that his road is “no longer a rat-run”, but Kenworthy Road has always been “problematic”.

He highlighted the crossing where Kenworthy Road and Homerton High Street meet, where a large volume of traffic means “it’s difficult to see if there’s anyone on the crossing or even that there is a crossing”.

Traffic on Kenworthy Road. Photograph: Olivia Barber

With a nursery and two schools in the area, Lyall said that a morning on “Kenworthy Road is kids, everywhere”.

He told the Citizen he wouldn’t consider allowing his child to travel to school alone.

Local resident Kal Chottai takes his 10-year-old to school and said: “I’ve literally had to pull my child back at the zebra crossing because cars don’t stop and they aren’t observing the 20mph limit.”

Andrea Daniels, who commutes by car and walks around the area, noted the lack of crossing points: “There’s one at the bottom of the road by Homerton High Street and one at the top by Wick Road.

“Either you have to go over several crossings, or you just run.”

In a tweet as far back as 2012, Homerton resident Sarah Miller raised concerns about the safety of schoolchildren on Kenworthy Road.

Once a month, Beale and other residents on Hassett Road participate in the Play Streets initiative, which sees the council close the road to traffic so children can play out.

“Someone said to me, it just makes a mockery of Play Streets if children are being knocked down on the road next to us,” Beale said.

The residents are keen to encourage children to walk and cycle by making roads safer for all, but they want safer crossings on busy roads.

Beale explained: “We want a re-evaluation of how the road can be made safer. Temporary measures could be lollipop ladies on the crossings or a school crossing patrol, but in the longer term, we really need to be looking at the area because this can’t go on.”

Town Hall transport boss Cllr Mete Coban said: “We’re extremely sorry to hear about two children being hit by a car on Kenworthy Road.

“The road is Transport for London-controlled and we’ve been raising residents’ concerns about crossing points for the best part of a decade.

“There has been some improvement – including with the introduction of 20mph speed limits – but there’s still some way to go and we’ll continue to raise concerns with TfL.”