Rat running danger in Danebury Avenue

At the recent Roehampton Safer Neighbourhood Police meeting, residents raised with me their concerns about rat-running down Danebury Avenue. Many years ago this used to be a real problem as Danebury Avenue was used as a shortcut from congested Roehampton Lane to Priory Lane and Richmond Park - but it was sorted out when barriers - subsequently replaced by bollards - were installed just by Alton School.

Aside from making Danebury Avenue much safer, quieter and more pleasant for the thousands of residents who live there, it's also prevented traffic speeding past the Alton School and Ibstock Place School - so it's really important.

In recent months however, the padlocks have been removed and the central bollard taken out, which creates enough space for most cars to be able to squeeze through. No-one is quite sure whether the person removing the bollard has one of the padlock keys the emergency services have to gain access when needed, or is simply breaking the padlock open and removing it.

When I visited on Tuesday this week the bollards were in place and padlocked, so hopefully the problem has been sorted out. This type of problem is exactly the local issue that Roehampton's councillors should be keeping an eye on - difficult, admittedly, when one of them lives in Bournemouth and the others, it is reported, are rarely seen locally (one resident of Shalden House asked who they were as she had never seen or heard from them).

There are signs by the bollards warning people that the bollards are monitored by CCTV. If that's the case - and the CCTV's working properly - the Council and Police should be able to work out who's been vandalising this bollard; causing criminal damage and risking a road traffic accident outside two schools - all simply to save a few minutes' journey time. If not, then it's time the council did what its signs say it does: monitor and act on CCTV footage.

I'm here to make sure they do.