A speed sign warning drivers in Lindley to slow down has been left in council offices since May - having been planned since last September.
And a councillor has spoken of his frustration at the long and slow process of getting it fitted and into use, describing it as ‘laughable’.
Council papers show the Huddersfield Area Committee approved £8,500 for a Speed Indicator Device (SID) on September 17, 2013 and Clr Mark Hemingway, Lindley Conservative, believes it was bought in May.
It was intended to highlight a driver’s speed in the hope of slowing cars down in the Lindley ward. But it’s still not been put in place.
Clr Hemingway said: “This whole issue has been going on since last year, Pennine Crescent is being a bit of a rat run and there is speeding in the wider area.
“People were frustrated and wanted something done and we agreed to buy this SID which the police recommended, but it’s been sat in a council office for two months now waiting for someone to go and put it up.
“I know we have a staff shortage and the road safety team has been cut to, I believe, four members and those four people have 23 wards to deal with, but surely in that time it was Lindley’s turn for attention.
“It beggars belief and it looks like we’re not doing anything to help our residents.
“We found the money, we paid for it and now it’s sat in a council office somewhere doing nothing.
“At this time of year with children playing out it’s vital to get this done.”
A council spokesperson said: “The Speed Indicator Device was delivered to the council in May 2014. Before the device can be installed the highways officers need to agree exact locations, on the streets already selected, with ward councillors.
“The councillors will be contacted shortly to finalise the exact location, and the device in Lindley will be fitted during the week commencing August 4. Our two Casualty Reduction Scheme engineers work across the whole of Kirklees installing SID’s and developing other road safety schemes – as such there can be a delay between purchase and installation.”
Clr Hemingway said it took the council more than a year to put up one sign warning drivers to take care as there was elderly residents living nearby: “The process of doing that was a joke, I even said I’d get a spanner myself and fit it.
“One person consulted on the sign, someone else considered where it should go and someone else had to fit it, but that person left the council and I was told the replacement hasn’t had the appropriate ladder training.
“Then instead of fitting it to an existing lamppost they dug a hole for a new post and fitted it to that. I did point out if they had bolted the sign to the new post before they put the post up then there was no need for ladder training - it shows the process of getting simple things done.”
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