A builder who has lived on a blackspot junction man and boy reckons he knows why there have been so many accidents this winter ... and there was another one on Friday night.

Michael Mulligan, 48, has lived in Cockley Hill Lane near the junction with Bellstring Lane and Highgate Lane at Kirkheaton since 1972.

He and his family have seen many changes on the B6118 Bellstring Lane/Liley Lane down the years.

The drystone wall outside the family’s home is often damaged by cars and other vehicles which fail to negotiate the left hand blind bend into Bellstring Lane.

Michael Mulligan with his parents' recently demolished wall, Bellstring Lane, Kirkheaton.

Michael, who lives next door to his parents, says people who insist the spate of accidents is solely caused by excessive speed are wrong.

“Speeding is an issue but there are other factors at play,” said Michael. “You only have to look at the road to see there’s a lot of clay impregnated but even that’s not the cause in my opinion.

Read more: Councillors clash over action at Huddersfield accident blackspot

“I think it’s the worn road surface itself. You can feel it when you rub it with your boot – if you dare go into the road! There’s a lack of traction and there’s only two reasons for that – the road surface or your tyres – and not everyone can have defective tyres.

“The road is fine if it’s really wet but if it’s just drizzling the road surface gets greasy and it’s lethal, like a sheet of ice.”

Take a drive along Bellstring Lane below - why do you think it's a blackspot? Tell us in the comments section below

Video Loading

Michael’s home is just a couple of hundred yards from where Kirklees Council has installed temporary traffic lights in a bid to slow drivers and cut the accident toll.

In the latest crash at 10pm on Friday night a Dalton woman driving a black Ford Fusion estate car was unhurt when she lost control on a bend and it smashed into a wall within the traffic lights section. This was the third time a car has hit that wall since Christmas but the first since the traffic lights were installed.

Read more: Angry drivers abused council workers carrying out "deep clean" of Bellstring Lane/Liley Lane

Cockley Hill Lane resident Simon Moyser said: “Thankfully no-one was walking on the pavement at the time. This would have been a total wipe-out of any pedestrians. The car came to rest on the side of the lane that was open so we had to shift cones to let other traffic past.”

The Examiner has reported since last November on a series of smashes which has forced the council to investigate the stretch of road between Grange Moor and Kirkheaton.

See pictures of accidents in Bellstring Lane below

It’s only a couple of years since Michael’s parents paid to have their wall rebuilt and had to pay for traffic lights to be put up. The temporary signals were up for just two days but that alone cost them £1,000.

Kirklees installed two sets of temporary lights on the road a month ago and Michael said: “Obviously it won’t be cost Kirklees what it cost us but it will still be very expensive.

“The lights are there but there’s no actual work going on. It seems the traffic lights are just there to slow traffic.”

Read more: 'Someone up there was looking after me' says mum whose car spun three times and crashed into field on Liley Lane/Bellstring Lane

Michael said the road was always notorious when he was growing up and added: “In the 1980s it was bad. As kids we could sit outside for a few minutes and literally watch two or three cars hit the wall. That’s when the speed limit was 60mph.”

Major resurfacing in 1990 – including new kerbs, pavements and anti-slip coatings on the bends – made the road safer. The speed limit was also reduced to the current 40mph.

Michael said four years ago the road was completely resurfaced with tarmac and a short time later covered over with chippings. The anti-slip coatings were never replaced.

Read more: We video the route at Kirkheaton blackspot as residents keep catalogue of crashes - and see an accident

Last week Michael’s CCTV cameras caught a car smashing into their wall and nearby there is more debris from another vehicle which also came to grief.

“The council needs to take action,” said Michael. “But my fear is that in the next six or eight weeks the problem will disappear.

“The sunshine and warm weather will come back, the accidents will stop and the council will forget about it."