RESIDENTS and motorists in Stanford-le-Hope are the latest to get the bump as Thurrock Council's controversial traffic calming measures which it is implementing as a measure to combat Covid-19 continue to be implemented.

The creation of a series of speed bumps on the approach to 'pinch points' including rail crossings has been ridiculed by many, including local councillors who have branded the scheme as a complete waste of money.

The work on London Road in Stanford, which resumed today (Monday 7 December), will see the speed bumps placed at intervals either side of the rail crossing and up as far as the Green in the town centre.

Thurrock Council initially received £288,000 under the the government's Emergency Active Travel fund. Some of that was used to paint pavements and put up notices on lamp-posts but the council has been coy about how the money was spent and on what projects.

Its efforts under the scheme do not appear to have won much favour with the government, which cut its expected second trance of funding under the scheme by almost half a million.

However, the council still has £690,000 to spend on projects related to the scheme - on top of the original £288,000, but as yet plans on what it hopes to do remain a secret. Meanwhile, local highways engineering company Henderson and Taylor, which has mopped up huge amounts of the council's spend on both the initial pavement painting and the installation of the speed bumps continues its work apace.

Bumps have also been placed outside St Clere's School on Butts Lane in Stanford-le-Hope, measures that were announced in September following concerns about speeding vehicles on the road while a one way system was implemented to and from the Linford civic amenity tip on Buckingham Hill Road.