Newmarket's Fordham Road horse crossings under discussion over safety concerns

“Someone is going to die if something is not done to make traffic in Fordham Road slow down.”

That was the grim warning given to Newmarket town councillors by a member of staff at trainer James Fanshawe’s Pegasus Stables on Monday.

Claire Muscutt told councillors: “We are desperate for help with the traffic (on the road) and the accidents it is causing with the horses that use it.

“In the last four months we have had four horses in separate incidents go down on the road with one rider sustaining a very serious career ending injury, a second rider sustaining a serious injury, and two others escaping injury by the skin of their teeth but involved in nasty falls none the less.

“Our riders wave the traffic down but they just do not slow down. We appreciate it is difficult to give a wide berth on that road but there must be a way of slowing them down as a rider or horse is going to end up dead.”

Ms Muscutt said riders wear fluorescent clothing, with blue lights on their helmets, but there had been five accidents in six months all of which, she said, could have been avoided if vehicles had been going more slowly. She said the most dangerous time was between 5.30am and 8am. She said road incidents were reported but added: “It is impossible to get number plates from lorries going at such speeds especially when you are on the back of a horse.”

Cllr Rachel Hood said, in her role as county councillor, she had been continually pressing the highways authority on Newmarket’s traffic issues and would now take up the issue with the Newmarket Vision transport group. “We should be discussing what is going to be done and how it is going to be done,” she said. “And it’s not just the Fordham Road, it is also Bury Road and elsewhere. Traffic in Newmarket is out of control and we need to do something.”