The following report is by Clare McArthur, on behalf of Earlsdon Community Speedwatch:

The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster visited Earlsdon on Friday 21 April for a street audit of Beechwood Avenue and its adjoining roads and to hear from representatives of Earlsdon Community Speedwatch and local residents. Two members from our neighbourhood policing team also attended.

Lasting for approximately 90 minutes, the visit took in the vast majority of Beechwood Avenue from the golf club car park entrance to the junction of Hartington with Beechwood just below the bridge.

We looked at physical road layouts and described the reality of negotiating them. We did this by:

• taking in specific problematic locations-including direct comments from residents about each trouble spot (as well as more generic observations)

• looking at the location of particular incidents and describing what had happened there

• hearing a first-hand account from a resident whose back garden runs adjacent to the s-bend

• finishing with two short and very powerful videos of particular traffic ‘behaviour’ captured on a house security camera

It’s fair to say, from his general reaction, observations and questions throughout the visit that Mr Foster appeared visibly taken aback by the complexities of the road set up and the problems arising from it. So we are confident that our presentation accurately reflected the situation and, most importantly, the level of blight on people’s lives.

The first stage of the liveable neighbourhoods consultation ended some while ago. However, as we speak to and hear from an increasing number of people, we’ve discovered that many are unaware of the scheme and therefore will not have made their feelings known. It has also become clear to us that the situation along Beechwood, and other roads in Earlsdon, is indeed proving hugely detrimental. Accordingly, we’ve emailed Council Cabinet Members; spoken to the liveable neighbourhoods team about our findings and will request a meeting with a member of the Highways team.

We undertake Community Speedwatches not in any expectation that they themselves will make a discernible difference to speeding traffic but essentially to show willing and provide useful data to inform constructive dialogues with organisations such as the council and police, who between them do have the power to affect positive change. We will continue to canvas opinion from local residents in a bid to inform future discussions.

ECS can be contacted on earlsdon.cs@gmail.com

Thank you.