We told you this would happen! (From Dudley News)

We told you this would happen!

1:00pm Wednesday 13th June 2012 in News

RESIDENTS living around a nightmare rat run through a Kates Hill estate claim a new road closure will not solve the problem.

Inalast-ditchattempt to stop law flouting town commuters using Blackacre Road as a cut-through off Dudley Southern Bypass, Dudley Council shut off Blackacre Road between Sheddon Street and Dando Street on Monday for the foreseeable future.

The closure came after years of campaigning by residents, councillors and police afterupto 1,000 cars an hour were regularly recorded using Blackacre Road during rush hour each day, despite the street becoming access only over five years ago.

But when the Sheddon Street and Dando Street proposals were first put forward by Dudley Council in 2010, residents in neighbouring streets to Blackacre Road claimed the planswould not cure the problem and would just move it elsewhere as the cars would divert around back streets.

Concerned householders living in Rollason Road, Paradise and Prospect Roweven submitted a petition against the plans, but the closure went ahead earlier this week.

Just hours after coming into force on Monday, there was a crash in Paradise, as motorists did just what residents feared.

Duncan Petford, who organised the petition in 2010, said: “The cars are diverting off Blackacre Road and coming down our streets, which is exactly what we said would happen. Traffic has been coming past our house continuously all day, down roads which are a lot narrower than Blackacre Road and the traffic noise even woke me for the first time this morning.

“The council may have stopped the problem for the residents of Blackacre Road, but what about the rest of us. We are told the council is short of money, so shouldn’t they do the job properly and sort it out in the first place, instead of wasting money on trials which are not going to help.”

Councillor Judy Foster, cabinet member for transportation and community safety, said: “For a number of years Dudley Council has received complaints from ward councillors, residents of Blackacre Road and from the police about intrusive volumes of through-traffic using the road.

"A prohibition of driving order, to only allow access to people living in or visiting the road, was introduced several years ago, but was unsuccessful in reducing the number of vehicles using the road. As a result, a working group comprising ward councillors, residents and the police was formed, which over the past two years has been working hard to arrive at this experimental traffic regulation order.”