Waverley estate: Family blames lack of road markings on unadopted estate after van crashes through living room

A family who ran from their home after a van ploughed through their living room wall has blamed developers for “still” not taking responsibility and getting their estate’s roads adopted.

Mum Rebecca Crofts and her husband Tony had to grab their two children out of bed and evacuate their home in Highfield Lane, on the Waverley Estate, beween Handsworth and Catcliffe, at 7.30pm on July 1 when a loud explosion led to smoke filling their ground floor.

At first they thought their house was on fire, but when they got outside, they found the cause was a silver transit van that had reportedly been hit by a black Peugeot at the junction with Bradfield Way and sent careering into their home.

Within minutes, four fire engines, three police cars and two ambulances arrived on the estate. Three men linked to the black Peugeot were reportedly arrested at the scene.

But Rebecca says this is only the latest out of ‘dozens’ of crashes on the Waverley estate in recent months.

She said: “This is the fourth crash I’ve witnessed here. It’s ironic - the first time I heard one I was like ‘what the hell was that’, now I know exactly what that sound is.

“Except now it’s happened to my home.”

The mum of two says the constant collisions are due to a “complete lack of road markings” on the estate - and blames developers for “still” not working to get their roads adopted by the local authority.

Rebecca said: “Cars are speeding up and down the estate constantly. There’s no road markings, no speed limit signs. Us residents are on a Facebook group together and people are clearly sick of it.”

Roads must be adopted by a local authority for it to be maintained under the Highways Acts 1980. But to do this, housing developers need to reach an agreement with councils, often by entering a ‘Section 38’ agreement to complete the road to the council’s standards. Until it is adopted, it falls to the responsibility of neighbours to pay for it.

Other issues to plague the Waverley estate include troubles with its oversubscribed school and delays in building a promised medical centre.