RESIDENTS are worried a new boot sale near their homes will fill a quiet country lane with traffic and lead to serious accidents.

People living in Gardiners Lane North, Crays Hill, already have to put up with motorists using the 15-foot-wide road as a rat-run to avoid weekday hold-ups in Wickford.

Now they say a new regular boot sale could radically increase the amount of weekend traffic, too.

Only a handful of cars turned up to the first weekend sale, but residents still fear things could get much worse if it gets more popular.

Margaret Humphery, 62, said: “It may be small now, but the owner won’t want it to stay like that if he intends to make any money out of it.

“We are right across the road from the site and I don’t want to be waking up to the sight of burger vans and hundreds of people on a Saturday morning.”

The entrance to the sale is just 20 yards from the A127 and residents fear queueing traffic will spill back on to the dual carriageway.

Another resident, Sally Aungier, said: “We get enough accidents on this road as it is, but if you have traffic at a standstill so close to the A127 turning, it could be really dangerous.

“Even if it doesn’t spill on to the A127, drivers would be turning off a very fast road into queueing traffic, which is an accident waiting to happen.”

Hundreds of people already flock to the area to a nearby boot sale off Nevendon Road every Sunday.

Ray McKay, a spokesman for Basildon Council, said the council would only act if the sale caused major disruption on nearby roads.

He added: “If there was a serious problem with the traffic coming off the A127 we would investigate the suitability of the site, but as there are only a few people attending at the moment, it is not an issue.”

A man on the boot sale site whom neighbours say is organising the sales, refused to comment when approached by the Echo.