Councillor Christopher Stalford

The article below was in the South Belfast News recently:

"The mother of a young child injured in a traffic collision at the weekend has said that the absence of speed bumps on their street could have cost her daughter’s life. Gillian McIlvenney spoke of her horror as five-year-old Cleona was hit head on by the vehicle outside her home on Florenceville Drive while her terrified 13-year-old sister Kelly-Anne could only look on helplessly.

The incident comes just one week after the South Belfast News revealed that Roads Service had dragged their heels on traffic calming measures for the Windsor Road area where an 18-year-old woman was killed in a car crash two weeks ago. Concerned parents are now calling for immediate action across South Belfast to reduce the risk to their kids. “Kelly-Anne is devastated because she had to see her sister get hit in front of her eyes,” said mum Gillian. “She hasn’t slept or eaten since. Cleona has bruising all over her body and it’s a miracle that she wasn’t more seriously injured. “This area is getting worse for traffic and it’s getting so children can’t even play outside their own homes. It’s used as a short cut for cars and some of them don’t care what speed they are going at. I thank God that my little girl is still alive.” A visibly upset Kerry-Anne also remembered the moment. “I was playing with my friend and Cleona was next to me when this car swerved into her. I saw her hit the bonnet go up in the air and then fall down again. “I don’t think that this would have happened if we had bumps on the road. I don’t think it’s fair that we don’t have them but other streets do and if we had them I don’t think my wee sister would have been hit.”

DUP councillor for Laganbank, Christopher Stalford, called for the immediate implementation of traffic calming measures on both Florenceville Avenue and Whitehall Parade. “Almost all the roads in this area have speed bumps save for these two. You don’t have to be a genius to work out why a child was hit on the road without traffic calming measures. “This time it was a near miss, but next time it could be a child killed. It is simply unacceptable to wait until that happens. “We don’t need any excuses from the Department of Regional Development. We need action and we need it now, before the newspaper headlines make for even grimmer reading.”