For the sake of driver and pedestrian safety, a Chatham-Kent councillor wants to make sure the traffic lights at a Charing Cross intersection are here to stay.
Councillor Karen Herman plans to bring a motion forward at Monday night's council meeting, which calls for the traffic lights at Charing Cross Rd. and Middle Line to remain permanently.
According to Herman, the traffic lights were temporarily installed by the Ministry of Transportation to accommodate traffic flow during the Hwy. 40 construction.
"The MTO placed those lights as council brought it to their attention, I know I did specifically, when they came to us and said that this project was going forward and the new hall route and everything was going to travel from the Bloomfield overpass to Middle Line to Blenheim, through Charing Cross," explains Herman.
Herman says she visited the post office at Charing Cross the other day and noticed a petition rallying support to keep the traffic lights permanently.
"A business resident had started the petition and decided that this was very important to their community. I understand that there's more than 600 names on this petition. Some have already been handed into the municipality and I also have more to submit on the night of my motion," says Herman.
Herman says the municipality has been looking at ways to improve the intersection for a while now and believes everyone would be in support of making the lights permanent.
"We, being the residents, decided that it's certainly been very positive how that traffic has been mitigated and the safe route that people have to walk across the road at the intersection is something they want to see remain," says Herman.
Herman adds that a top priority for the municipality is building an age friendly community that keeps mobility issues in mind. She says without the lights, it is difficult for senior citizens to cross the intersection and get to necessary places like the post office.
"This would be very important for our community of Charing Cross to have the safety that they deserve," she says.
