Plans to clamp down on rat running drivers in Wimbledon Village could result in a greater risk of schoolchildren being involved in road accidents, it is feared.

Merton Council wants to impose rush hour road closures in the Belvederes, a cluster of residential roads connecting Wimbledon town centre and the Village, in a six-month trial using mobile CCTV vans.

Despite similar plans being rejected by councillors a year previously, the council is pressing ahead with proposals of timed closures during morning and evening peak times.

Sundeep Kapila, who lives in Highbury Road, said the plan would not shift rush hour traffic to the main distributor roads as the council wanted, but may inadvertently shift it outside the area’s two primary schools.

He said: “There is a serious concern that traffic will be channelled past the two schools in Lake Road, Bishop Gilpin and Ricards Lodge, and will also be distributed to other roads within the Belvederes rather than being confined to the perimeters.

“The council has been made aware of this and I cannot think, even on an experimental basis, it will be permitted without the appropriate changes being made in advance.”

Oonagh Moulton, a Wimbledon Park councillor and governor at Ricards Lodge School, said: “There has been no proper traffic count taken by the council as to what the impact will have for residents in Wimbledon Park and other neighbouring areas.

“Obviously this is going to have knock-on effects and there are concerns that, because the restrictions apply during the morning rush hour, that more traffic will pass by nearby schools.”

A Merton Council spokesman said: “We have just finished an informal consultation about the experimental traffic scheme. We are preparing a report that be looked at by councillors in September.

“At that meeting we will know what the next step forward is.”

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