A FAMILY feel "horrified" by the council's decision not to install a safety barrier after a car crashed into their garden.

Colette and Andrew Champ of Oakbank, Henley Road, Marlow, are calling for Buckinghamshire Council to install safety barriers to the rear of the property, on Highfield Park Road.

The crash happened on Tuesday, July 10 at around 10am and luckily the children were inside the house at the time when the car "nose-dived into their garden".

Andrew told the Free Press: "I felt horrified. 

"I was fearful of what could have happened to my children that were home at the time and also fearful of how injured the driver would be given the car nose-dived from such a height.

"Thankfully it transpired there was no driver. The car didn't hit the house itself due to the garden furniture."

Bucks Free Press:

His wife Colette contacted the local authority to complain about the severity of the incident, calling for a crash barrier to be installed on the public road.

Her email to Buckinghamshire Council said: "I have requested the installation of a new crash barrier at the rear of my property on a public road. 

"This request was prompted as a result of a vehicle crashing through our fence and landing in our back garden, this is the 3rd incident at this address. 

"Luckily,  our young children were not in the garden at the time however if they were, it most definitely would have resulted in a death."

The council's Highways team responded to the family that they weren't able to grant this due to budgets and advised them to contact their "local community Board" or "Community Speedwatch in the area."

They told her: "Works that are not highlighted on Buckinghamshire Council’s capital budget for improvements will not be prioritised for any works or for funding from Buckinghamshire Highways."

The Free Press raised this with the council. 

Steven Broadbent, Cabinet Member for Transport said: “As part of our regular road safety investigations, we plot all injury collisions we receive from Thames Valley Police on a mapping system and conduct annual analysis on those sites with the most collisions. Where multiple collisions are shown to have occurred over a period of time we will conduct further investigations and look to see what measures could be taken to improve road safety.

"From our records, no other collisions have been recorded in this location. If an incident occurs in isolation we are not able to direct funds towards it without further evidence to prove it needs priority attention.

"We sympathise with the residents in this case and have directed them to contact their local Community Board who have a modest budget specifically to deal with issues such as this one, if they are deemed to be a local priority.”