SOUTHEND’S Victoria Gateway shared space is set to stay following a nine-month independent review.

Despite safety fears over the controversial junction at Victoria Avenue and Queensway, only minor adjustments are to be made.

Campaigners have called for new kerbs and pedestrian crossings with audible signals in the shared space, where vehicles and pedestrians are meant to mingle freely, aspart of a £55,000 revamp of the area.

However, council officers have rejected the calls as accidents have fallen since the junction’s multi-million pound redevelopment in 2011.

The number of accidents per year at the junction has fallen from 11, before the council converted the roundabout into a junction with traffic lights, to eight.

Paul Mathieson, the council’s group manager for strategic transport and planning, said: “The impression of the area as being dangerous, that some of the public have got from some councillors and campaigners, is certainly not borne out by the statistics.

“This is in light of what we consider to be a big increase the number of people using the area.

“People generally feel safer from a community safety point of view.”