COUNCILLORS have been left with egg on their faces after an expensive study into the Sovereign cross roads concluded the best option was... to do nothing.

The notorious Shepley blackspot has suffered a number of serious smashes over the last few years.

Last November a water delivery van and a Vauxhall Astra crashed at the junction of Penistone Road and Cumberworth Lane. The Astra driver to have be cut out of his car.

In August last year, an 81-year-old from Upperthong suffered chest injuries when his Ford Fiesta was in collision with a cement lorry.

In February 2008 a Peugeot 307 and a Nissan Almera collided and crashed into two vehicles that were parked on a nearby grass verge.

And in August 2007 seven people were injured, including a boy of three who suffered a broken collarbone and bruises, in a two-car smash on Barnsley Road.

While nobody has died at the junction, three collisions within half-a-mile of the crossroads have claimed four lives since 2005.

But when councillors called on Highways officials to act they were snubbed and told it was not a priority as the junction was only the 50th worst in Kirklees.

In a bid to fast-track safety improvements the region’s councillors chipped in £21,000 from their own budgets to fund a study into possible junction enhancements.

The money came from the three area committees bordering the junction, Holme Valley South, Denby Dale and Kirkburton.

Highways engineers spent more than a year completing the study, including recording traffic flow and modelling a number of different solutions using powerful traffic simulation software.

Two options were presented to councillors – traffic lights costing £400,000 or a double mini-roundabout costing £300,000.

But councillors were left frustrated when highways engineers said both proposals would cause tailbacks and would be poor value for money. A third option of creating a link road behind the petrol station and re-aligning the junction was dismissed as too expensive and impractical.

Highways officials now intend to install vehicle activated speed warning signs on all four approaches to the junction and tidy up the lines and signs in May this year.

After a public presentation of the study last Tuesday, furious Holme Valley South Tory, Clr Nigel Patrick attacked the efforts of the council’s highways department.

He said: "I’m so annoyed about this I just can’t tell you. We went down this road to find a solution and the officers have come up with nothing. All I hear is negative, negative, negative and lots of excuses.

"They’re saying they can’t do anything but I don’t believe that. Somebody has to die before they will do anything.

"Somebody will die at this junction and then they will do something but it will be too late for the victim’s families.

"I joined Kirklees Council to make a difference and I feel like I’ve failed."

Chair of the Holme Valley Parish Council, Trevor Bellamy, also blasted the results.

He said: "How many hours have been put into this study? Both ideas are unsatisfactory."

But the under fire highways official said statistics did not back up claims the junction was deadly. He said the average speed recorded there was below the 50mph limit and insisted better results could not be achieved without a massive engineering project costing millions of pounds.

He added: "Sometimes we find that what people perceive are dangerous junctions are not because people take that extra bit of care".