Parents fear London streets are becoming ‘lawless’ as vandals wreck signposts with ‘angle grinder’

Detailed summary

One parent described driving down the targeted roads as ‘absolutely terrifying’

Parents in an East End borough have called for urgent action on road safety in their area following vandal attacks on roadside traffic signs by a local school.

The Metropolitan Police force is investigating reports of criminal damage to street signs in Cazenove Road, Hackney, received just after 5pm on Monday, November 9. No arrests have yet been made.

The signs, put up to enforce traffic bans during school pick-up and drop-off hours, were felled when vandals cut them with power tools.

The destruction has reignited local parents’ fears that these residential streets are now “lawless” due to dangerous driving and “disgraceful parking”.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) visited the site on Tuesday morning and spoke to residents as parents arrived at the school gates pushing prams and dropping off their kids.

Local parent Kelly Allnutt described her school run as “absolutely terrifying, anxiety-inducing, cortisol-level-rising horrible”.

“I’m not expecting a country walk to school, that would be silly. But this is ridiculous. My son can’t get across here on his bike […] Everyone’s honking their horns, there’s so much anger, and just a complete lack of acknowledgement for anybody else,” she said.

Under its extensive School Streets programme, Hackney Council has placed numerous pedestrian and cycle zone signs at the entry and exit points of designated zones outside schools. The schemes were introduced to make streets safer for walking and cycling while cutting air pollution.

According to the UK Government, with 50 active School Streets, Hackney has the largest programme of this kind in the UK. A report adds that timed road restrictions cover 87% of the borough’s primary schools – “benefitting 20,000 pupils”.

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