A couple from Ystrad Mynach have begun campaigning to make the town safer, after their young daughter was knocked over on her way to school.
Jessica and Michael Erskine are calling on Caerphilly County Borough Council to take measures to improve the “rife” issues with traffic in Ystrad Mynach.
On Wednesday February 15, Mr Erskine was walking his four-year-old daughter to the local primary school, when she was knocked down by a reversing car on a zebra crossing on High Street.
Michael, 33, said: “I walk my daughter to school every morning before catching the train to work in Caerphilly. It was around 8.30am and we were at the crossing by Gaffaccinos.
“I’m always very cautious on the zebra crossing as it’s close to the mini-roundabout and is a blind spot for cars on Penallta Road.
“My daughter was on my right hand side and a waiting driver gave me a nod to cross, but as we got half-way across, a car which was already over the zebra crossing started reversing and knocked my daughter over.”
Mr Erskine moved quickly to put his body between the girl and car, and banged on the rear window to alert the driver.
He added: “My world stopped for a few seconds, but fortunately she didn’t hit her head. She just had a sore arm. We took her to get checked out at Prince Charles Hospital and all’s okay.”
Mr Erskine claims the car was forced to reverse to allow enough space for a coach to turn off Penallta Road onto High Street, which was blocking the roundabout.
“At the time, I didn’t know what had happened, but a friend who was there said that a large coach swung around the roundabout and left no choice for the car but to reverse.”
After the incident involving her daughter, Jessica was sparked into starting a campaign to address the poor traffic management in the town, and has close to 500 members on the Facebook group ‘Make Ystrad Mynach safe for our children’.
The group aims to highlight the amount of large vehicles, high volumes of traffics, parking issues, poor positioning of zebra crossings, and lack of law enforcement in and around Ystrad Mynach, with members encouraged to report incidents to the council in order for them to be logged.
Mr Eskine said: “Traffic has increased in the town and the council seems to just want to do the bare minimum.
“In an ideal world, my daughter wouldn’t need to be an example of it, but this incident is part of a much wider issue. Incidents like ours shouldn’t just trigger reactions, there should be preventative measures in place to ensure they don’t happen in the first place.
“Caerphilly council seem to be reactive. The statistics they provide don’t take into account how often the zebra crossing is used. It can get blocked by queuing cars, and the data is not a fair reflection of the situation.”
Michael and Jessica have lived on Bedwlwyn Road in the town for three years, and have had several cars damaged – including one written off in early February due to a speeding driver – as a result of the traffic issues.
He added: “There is now a very real concern shared across residents in Ystrad Mynach. There’s a fear of walking our children to school. The zebra crossing could be moved back, have lights added, or a lollipop style system could be implemented. We want the to council to stop throwing data our way. It’s not all quantitative, it’s a qualitative issue.
“We understand that there are requests we have outlined which may not all be achievable in the short term but we need answers as to why. Practical reasons. If it’s budgets, then the council need to tell us and then it’s a question for the Welsh Government.”
Plaid Cymru’s councillor for Ystrad Mynach, Martyn James, has given his backing to the campaign.
He said: “It’s incredibly sad that a little girl was knocked over, and I want a safer Ystrad Mynach for parents, pensioners, children, every resident.
“It was an awful incident and the circumstances most certainly could have been avoided.
“The town has doubled in size over the last ten years, and there’s a big issue with traffic, especially as it has become a thoroughfare for buses. There used to be a one-way system out through Pengam Road, and it could be a solution to suggest to return to one-way.
“The zebra crossing [on High Street] was placed there after requests by residents eight or nine years ago. Is it in the right place given current issues? I’m not sure. It could be moved back, but it’s a very tight area. The answer could be a pelican crossing instead.
“Naturally we need a consensus for a decision, and I am 100% behind people who want to improve the area.”
Caerphilly County Borough Council say they plan to open a review into the High Street crossing.
A council spokesperson said: “Officers have been in contact with the parents and other community members following this incident, and while we wouldn’t speculate on the cause, we’re planning to undertake a review of the operation of the crossing in the near future.”
The whole of Ystrad Mynach town area needs a thorough overhaul to make it safer.
A few years ago a temporary one way system was put in place – if this was adopted on a permanent basis and the road made a single carriageway to prevent the illegal parking we now see on a daily basis the whole town centre would be much safer.
Perhaps another contribution would be to leave the Police deal with antisocial behaviour and to scrap the community safety wardens and make them parking wardens instead.
This would be money well spent – and it would also resolve the issues of illegal
parking in our town centres.
I agree John, for 10 years now Caerphilly borough has had a safer community dept, which had achieved nothing we have wardens walking…sorry correction driving around trying to tackle anti social behaviour and ever other job replanted to community safety all with no powers to do so. The police should be increased as should the cso, anti social behaviour and road safety should be dealt with by this people, NOT these wardens who doing nothing when thy are sent out to deal with it. I have seen these warden at various festivals directing traffic and walking around like they are sheriffs. I wonder if thy have traffic powers to deal with this? Thy dress like the police but don’t do anything these are the cardboard coppers of Caerphilly borough. Let’s scrap this dept and put the money towards proper police who can deal with it. I had to phone the police this last weekend for anti social behaviour, but instead we got wardens, thy are like mr Ben like magic they appear do nothing and go. I’m elderly and this fills me with little confident when I phone for the police I want real police or the plastic ones if thy are not available. I definitely do not want the cardboard one who dress up like the police
So let’s scrap this department and put the money to making Caerphilly really safe with real police
I also want to ask the councillors who read this to explain why these warden types are being sent to police calls,