11 May Is Elephant and Castle a safe place to live?
Lead in
Is Elephant and Castle a safe place to live? Known for its high crime rates and prone to accidents, Olivia Kemp heads over to the area to speak to residents to discuss their thoughts and feelings on why they think the southern junction is unsafe. Olivia discusses with them about TFL reviewing the area 6 years after it being built and how they feel after it being so long since being reviewed.
Script
Olivia: Elephant and Castle, known for it’s high crime rates, from theft to road rage, is finally being reviewed. The southern junction causes many accidents everyday yet it’s taken almost 6 years for TFL to uphold a safety review. It was just 5 days ago a lorry and a cyclist collided causing 1 person to be hospitalised. Many residents have complained due to feeling unsafe. I headed down to the southern junction to find out how people feel about this.
Vox 1: I’m glad something is finally being done after not feeling safe in my own area. A few years back there wasn’t even any give way lines. All I ask is they make it a safer place for pedestrians to cross, that way I know my kids are safe walking home from school
Vox 2: it’s been a long time coming if I’m being completely honest, there’s been too many accidents for no action to be taken.
Pot cut 1:
I went down to the local police station to talk to one of the officers who covers the area to discuss his thoughts on the southern junction and if it’s caused any problems.
Pot cut 2:
Police: I had to respond to a call the other day regarding a cyclist lorry collision, we’ve had a lot of complaints from the locals, both residents and shop owners, and were doing all we can to make it safer.
Olivia: What kind of complaints have you had?
Police: it’s generally the residents complaining about how the bike lanes are built, a lot of the time it’s more bike accidents than cars. We also get complaints about how the bike lanes cross over with the roads; it’s the main reason why there is so many accidents on that junction.
Olivia: is there much you’re doing to prevent accidents from happening at the moment?
Police: well there’s not really much we can do until TFL carry out the full review but until then we are doing day to day safety checks to ensure everyone stays safe on the road
Olivia: after the most recent accident, the residents need change now more than ever. Its clear that the southern junction is causing problems for drivers as well as pedestrians due to the amount of accidents that have happened in the past year. TFL gave a statement explaining that the review will be taking place within the next couple of weeks. We can only pray that it brings safety and justice to the civilians of Elephant and Castle. This is Olivia Kemp reporting from journalism.london
