Council to stop vehicles using street after incident

A council leader has said the authority "will stop vehicles one way or another from travelling along Friar Gate over the bank holiday weekend" after seven pedestrians were struck by a car on the street in Derby city centre.

Nadine Peatfield said Derby City Council would "thoroughly consider the implications" of the incident in which seven people were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

It happened when a black Suzuki Swift was driven into pedestrians in Friar Gate at about 21:30 GMT on Saturday. Three people have since been discharged.

Detectives are continuing to question a 36-year-old Derby man, originally from India, who was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Responding to calls for road barriers around "vulnerable" streets, council leader Peatfield said the Labour-run council was "constantly reviewing city centre safety".

"The safety and security of our residents and visitors is our absolute priority," she said.

"In close collaboration with the police, we have integrated Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) measures into our public realm improvements to protect busy areas and public events from unauthorised vehicle access.

"We are constantly reviewing city centre safety and we will, of course, thoroughly consider the implications of Saturday's incident.

"We're committed to ensuring our city remains a safe and welcoming environment for everyone."

In an interview with BBC Radio Derby, Peatfield added: "We will stop vehicles one way or another from travelling along Friar Gate over the bank holiday weekend."

When asked about the possibly of barriers and other street furniture, she said: "We have done a review of the city quite recently, about where we would stop traffic, where we would put protections in place, but that's been more related to events space and where we have large gatherings for specific events.

"Obviously this changes the scenery on that. It's really early days - the main thing we're going to focus on is the immediate, which is as people come out next weekend."

In the wake of the incident, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said calls were made for a city centre "review", to determine whether high footfall streets - such as Friar Gate - now require extra protection measures for pedestrians.

Steve Hassall, Conservative councillor for the Allestree ward, has written to council leaders claiming that some of the public response to the incident suggested "a lack of confidence that sufficient preventative measures are currently in place within our city centre".

He has called for "a targeted assessment of Friar Gate and similar locations for [HVM], using design-led solutions that complement the public realm".

"A review would look at what safety measures are most appropriate," he said.

"I'm not saying for any second we create a fortress or a prison, but clearly we want people to be safe.

"There might be other streets in the city centre that might have a degree of vulnerability to them, which could be explored."

In response to Hassall's letter, Ch Supt Emma Aldred, of Derbyshire Police, said: "We are working with our city council colleagues as part of the recovery process, and the safety of the city will be one of the things to be considered as part of that."

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