£12m injection for road safety

Sep 13 2008 by nick lavigueur, Hudd Sat

BETTER and safer roads and paths are coming to the ‘valleys’ after councillors agreed to plough £12m towards improvements.

As part of a £5m ‘Safer Roads’ initiative, councillors plan to spend more than £2m over the next five years, improving the crumbling Holme and Colne Valley roads and pavements and introducing new safety measures.

The joint Lib Dem/Green Party proposal seeks to pump cash into Kirklees’ eight worst regions, mostly the outlying rural zones but also including Kirkburton, Dewsbury South, Greenhead, Newsome, Almondbury and Crosland Moor.

And a £6m Tory ‘Better Roads’ initiative seeks to target the worst roads across Kirklees, prioritising those that have not been dealt with before. A further £1m has also been allocated to a ‘Safer Pedestrians’ project.

More than 1,300 pedestrians have been killed or injured in Kirklees in the past five years, including 530 children, and a large chunk of the cash injection will be spent on improving the safety of villages and residential areas.

Measures that could be used are new road markings, signs, plateaux, crossings and speed limit changes, including the introduction of 20mph zones near schools.

Highways officers have already been out earmarking the poorest valley roads and most dangerous locations and potential valley projects for 2008/09 include, creating a parking layby at Springwood Road, Thongsbridge and improving the zebra crossings in Holmfirth.

Almondbury Lib Dem, Clr John Smithson, said: “It’s a fact that some wards have worse roads and pavements than others. It makes sense to try and bring all the wards up to the same level.”

Holme Valley South Conservative, Clr Ken Sims, said: “I’m really happy that 20mph zones are part of this plan.It’s something we really need to look at, particularly around schools in rural areas.”

But road safety campaigner, Rena Cage, said she was annoyed that Birdsedge seemed to be missing out again.

Residents of the tiny village on the dangerous Penistone Road have long complained that they are in urgent need of a crossing outside the school and also want new pavements installing.

Last March, pensioner Beryl Smith cheated death after she was dragged into the road by the backdraft from a speeding wagon, causing her a nasty head wound and almost knocking her unconscious.

Mrs Cage, a former nurse, was the first to help patch Beryl up and has been campaigning for something to be done ever since.

“They haven’t accredited any of this money to our crossing,” she said.

“We’re on the outskirts and we’re the poor relations yet again. We’re getting a bit fed up here in Birdsedge.”

But Clr Jim Dodds said he and his colleagues had definitely not forgotten about the problems in Birdsedge.

“The three ward councillors have expressed our strong views that there needs to be something done,” he said.

“The initial report that the council produced hadn’t given any costings for a crossing. We have asked for that - once we have got that we will try and find the money.”

Clr Dodds said that nothing was guaranteed but was hopeful a new footpath and traffic islands by the school would also be installed.