Our road is plagued by an 'endless conveyor belt' of learner drivers - we get at least 300 coming here every week!

Oct 16, 2024

By Frankie Elliott For Mailonline 11:10 15 Oct 2024, updated 16:16 15 Oct 2024

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Angry locals say their peaceful residential lives are being disrupted by an 'endless conveyor belt' of learner drivers on their roads.

Residents claim their cars and houses have been damaged by the huge numbers of nervous learner drivers in Hastings, East Sussex.

It is believed as many as 300 learners from more than 20 different schools use Ashford Road and Ashford Way every week.

Those living on these roads say the invasion of L-plated cars has caused chaos in the neighbourhood, with dining rooms lit up like a 'sci-fi film' each night.

One councillor even claimed that some elderly residents had had the walls outside their homes knocked down as many as five times.

Councillor Andy Batsford told The Argus: 'It's a working road. Residents' cars are used as free obstacles. To have your car targeted 300 times by novice drivers makes you pretty nervous. The roads are home to some of the oldest residents in town.'

Several of the residents' vehicles run parallel to the roads and are used as 'free obstacles' by learners, because no one takes responsibility when they are damaged, Councillor Batsford claimed.

The 54-year-old said that lines of five or six learner drivers could regularly be seen queuing to practice their parallel parking, a sight he labelled as 'comedic'.

A number of locals were also keen to express their frustration at the number of learner drivers on their road.

Alice Lase, 23, says her stepfather - who lives on Ashford Road - 'hates' the endless ques of learner drivers.

She said: 'I learned to drive down this road. As soon as I told them I was interested in lessons, they asked where I lived.

‘I said 'Ashford Road' and they said, "Great, that's where we would be taking you anyway".'

Another local, who chose to remain nameless, claimed: 'One time they had five goes parking next to my car.'

Councillor Batsford has now launched a campaign asking driving instructors to consider using other areas, with a number of posters seen in the area asking them to take the pressure off the largely elderly population.

According to the councillor, there has been a slight reduction in the number of lessons seen on the roads since these posters were put up.

'We're aware that people have to learn to drive, but we need to take a bit of pressure off this route,' he said.

A number of driving schools in Hastings have been contacted by MailOnline for a comment.

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