‘Someone could be seriously hurt’: plea for Diss junction rethink

A Diss resident is calling on Norfolk Highways and the district and county councils to rethink a town junction, which he has labelled dangerous.

Justin Brooks, who has lived in his Mount Street home for five years, he has contacted South Norfolk Council and Norfolk Highways on numerous occasions about the perilous nature of the junction and road, which leads to Diss Health Centre.

He feels that some of the parking bays along the side of his home are too close to the junction and that the road itself is too narrow, making passing cars have to bank the pavement just to get by.

The 53-year-old said: “I started to take a proper look at the junction after the council removed some wooden posts that were protecting my house from being hit by cars parking in the spaces about two years ago.

“They had rotted, but instead of swapping like for like, they put in plastic ones, which, over time, have not been strong enough and have now pierced a hole into the side of my Grade II-listed building, showing its wattle and daub.”

After not receiving a response from the council, the graphic designer then started to look at the junction in more detail.

He said: “I then started to dig a bit further and found out the road does not comply with building regulations. For example, you should not have cars parking right up to a junction like they are.

“Also, it can’t be right that on the road up to the centre, the left hand side of the pavement has a drop kerb all the way along it, so cars can bump it and get past cars leaving the centre in the other direction – leaving pedestrians sharing the pavement with moving cars.”

Mr Brooks said that, due to both of these issues, he has witnessed a number of accidents at the junction, including neighbours having their cars written off.

He added: “Due to the road being too narrow, lorries wanting to deliver to the centre are parking outside my house or are trying their luck, reversing up and using the pavement as well.

“With the accidents and near misses I have seen, I just feel there is something not right with the whole layout of this junction: the width, the placing of it and some of the parking spaces down it.

“If someone does not have a proper look and rethink of it, someone could be seriously hurt.”

Mr Brooks has sent his concerns to the authorities but no one has come back to him with an answer on any of his points.

“I have been to highways and the council and I feel they have not got back to me with answers as they either don’t have one or they don’t want to say that maybe this junction is not correct,” he said.

“They want to facilitate the medical centre, and I can understand that, but this road causes absolute chaos.

“Old people, those with disabilities and families with young children are all trying to access the medical centre by the pavement at the same time that cars are passing each other and lorries are delivering; it is a mess and a serious accident waiting to happen.”

South Norfolk Council and Norfolk County Council were both approached for comment by the Diss Express.