In response to Berenice Stansfield’s letter about road safety on Tetbury Road, I would like to point out that we raised this as a concern in 2014 when our oldest son started at Deer Park School.

We spoke to several Liberal Democrat members of the council to raise our worry that this stretch of road is a tragedy in the waiting.

We found it surprising that whilst a road worker alongside a 70mph road requires special training and hi-vis clothing the council thinks it’s reasonable to direct school children onto a shared cycle/ footpath with only a faded green line for protection from the fast moving traffic.

If a child was injured or killed, it could be argued that the council was complicit as children are directed to this unprotected stretch of path with no apparent concern for their safety.

We asked one council member about the option of a safety barrier to reduce the risk of death or injury, and were told that there wasn’t enough money for this to be done.

Four years later in a time of increased austerity our children are still expected to take their life in their hands to get to school, but there is enough money for the council members to have a significant increase in expenses.

This obviously comes from a different budget.

There would be no point in reducing the speed limit on this or any other stretch of road in Cirencester as there does not appear to be any active speed monitoring or measures to deter traffic from speeding.

The only solution that would help to reduce the likelihood of a further death on this stretch of road is to put a barrier in place between the road and the path. This would deter people from trying to cross between the footbridge and the subway (there have been at least two fatalities as a result of this), and would reduce the likelihood of a pedestrian or cyclist straying into the road or a vehicle straying onto the path.

Do we really need to wait for a death or serious injury to occur before the council do something about this safety disaster?

Sarah Woods

Stratton, Cirencester