LONG-awaited average speed cameras on a busy Southend street are finally set to be approved to tackle speeding and dangerous drivers.

Councillors and frustrated residents have called for speed cameras in Eastern Avenue for years and next week a cabinet committee is set to rubber stamp them after they were recommended for approval.

The road has seen a string of accidents over recent years and with hundreds of new homes planned around the Fossetts Farm area of Eastern Avenue, major concerns have been raised that problems could only get worse.

If approved, the cameras will be in both directions of the dual carriageway from the McDonald’s roundabout to Priory Park.

The nearby Temple Sutton School is also set to have a crossing at its Royston Avenue entrance approved.

Brian Beggs, Conservative councillor for St Luke’s ward, who has been lobbying for the cameras for two years, welcomed the decision to install the average speed cameras.

He said: “The decision is being made on December 6 and I’m hoping it will be approved. I’m very pleased if it goes ahead and I’m hoping it’s going to be done pretty quickly too. The council is pretty good at dragging its heels. Sometimes things can take years so hopefully it will be done soon.

“Hopefully the crossing at Temple Sutton School will go through too. It’s just at the Bournemouth Park Road and Eastern Avenue junction. Cars park there right to the very edge and once the cars come down Eastern Avenue they are hitting up to 50mph and they swing into that junction at the school. You have young children crossing the road there.”

Both road safety schemes are set get the go-ahead after petitions were presented to the council. Another petition to make Richmond Avenue in Shoebury a one-way street is also set for approval.

Mr Beggs added: “Because they have put so many protections into the seafront, most of the boy racers go along that stretch now. You can hear them screaming their engines at night. Sometimes they will do a drag race coming off Bournemouth Park Road, down to the roundabout at Sutton Road.

“There have been quite a few accidents on the that road over the years.”