PART of the highway in Somersham, which claimed the life of a racing cyclist and where a householder s car was demolished by a hit-and-run driver just after Christmas, is to become private car parking space. Huntingdonshire magistrates last week granted a

PART of the highway in Somersham, which claimed the life of a racing cyclist and where a householder's car was demolished by a hit-and-run driver just after Christmas, is to become private car parking space.

Huntingdonshire magistrates last week granted an Order to "stop up" the land adjacent to 1 The Bank, which Cambridgeshire County Council, applying for the measure, said the verge was on such a steep bank that it was of little use to pedestrians.

At the request of Huntingdonshire District Council, a two-metre strip adjacent to the road will be retained as public highway in case there is a future need to widen the road, which is used by heavy aggregates lorries.

HDC and Somersham Parish Council supported the move, and the only public comment received had been in favour, Nicola Molloy, for CCC, told the court.

Until now, the family living at 1 The Bank had had to park their vehicles in the road.

There had been a fatal accident some years previously when a road user had been killed as a result of a collision with a parked car.

And, on the day after Boxing Day 2005, there had been another crash in which the residents' car had been written off and their boat and trailer damaged.

April Webb, who lives in the house, told The Hunts Post that the road user who died had been a racing cyclist.

She believed he had been replacing his drinking bottle when he should have been concentrating on the road.

The recent hit-and-run accident had left her family with repair bills of around £4,000, she added.

"It has taken us 10 years to reach this stage," she said at the end of the case,