After a decade of chaos Herts County Council remove road narrowing bollards

Traffic-calming bollards are used across the UK to slow down traffic by narrowing the width of a road. However, a particular stretch of road in Watford that uses these bollards has caused hundreds of crashes for over ten years. Earlier this month, they were finally removed.

Herts County Council were forced to take them down on a narrow residential road after daily crashed and scrapes – causing police, fire services and breakdown providers to be called to the scene.

They were originally installed to stop HGV drivers using the roads – but the deterrent has led to hundreds of cars being written off or on the receiving end of thousands of pounds worth of damage.

A local resident who lives by the bollards has caught unsuspecting drivers colliding with them over the past decade, and many other local residents have called for them to be removed. This is largely due to the constant trouble they have caused all road users and local people.

The families surrounding the streets of Woodmere Avenue were this month relieved to see them removed for good.

Following the news that they have been taken down, the council announced that new bollards would be introduced but spread further apart – and new Automatic Number Plate Recognitions being installed in due course.

• What to do if your car breaks down?
• Road safety tips - all you need to know
• Dangerous driving - what it is and how to report it

The local resident who caught the accidents on camera, Tim Vigor, spoke to the Daily Mail about the problem.

He said: “They reckon they won't get cameras here until next year. They're going to take a bollard away on each side and move the remaining four back six inches to give it a bit more space.

“The bollards that are there are square and filled with concrete and they're changing them to round ones. As a temporary fix I'm happy because they are acknowledging the problem and starting to do something about it.

“Every day there is plastic everywhere from bits that have been ripped off cars. Literally hundreds have crashed on it. I want them to take away the whole thing altogether and put a camera down at the end of the road so that drivers get big fines.

“I'm happy because things are moving but if they don't see it through, I won’t be.”

Source: ITV News

Are there any troubling traffic enforcement bollards or similar that are causing your local community problems? Let us know in the comments below.