The long awaited safety scheme outside Ludlow Primary School will go ahead before the summer. Installation of a raised table outside the school comes after a campaign by school governors and local Shropshire Councillor Tracey Huffer. We don’t have a date for the work yet but it is expected to begin immediately after Cadent, the gas infrastructure provider, vacates the site around Easter. That means the safety scheme, which includes new signage and the raised table, will be in place before the summer. We need other school safety schemes on Old Street and Bromfield Road.
We have been expecting this work for a while. There has long been a problem with flooding of properties at Whitefriars off Sandpits Road. However, to allow sewers to realigned and their capacity increased, other utilities need to be moved – electricity, gas, telecoms and water. That’s a big task, hence the length of the closure – up to nine months. Severn Trent Water (STW) will also upgrade the sewers on New Road during the same contract. Pedestrian access is unaffected. Access to the school and homes will be maintained, including for emergency services. As part of the works, STW will install a raised table outside the school entrance to slow traffic. That’s a long awaited road safety project.
“It’s frustrating but there is not much we can do about it.” That’s the message from Tracey Huffer, Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow East after an essential road safety scheme outside Ludlow Primary School on Sandpits Road was been delayed by several months. The delay is likely to last several months but there is some good news.
Shropshire Council intends to carry out fifteen road safety schemes around the county this year. The list includes long needed traffic calming outside Ludlow Infant and Nursery School in Sandpits Road. The decision follows site meetings where parents, governors and councillors have pressed the case for action to reduce the risk of accidents on this busy road. It is hoped that the work will take place in the autumn. Another scheme to provide a crossing on Old Street for children and parents at St Laurence’s School is not yet scheduled and is likely to be some way off.
More people will trip on Ludlow’s pavements and end up in hospital. More cyclists will be tipped into the carriageway. More cars will have their wheels wrecked. These are just a few of the consequences of a proposed new policy for highway repairs, which Shropshire Council slipped out for consultation without so much as a press release. I have no doubt these policies will come in. Shropshire Council is beholden to the motor car. And it has cut back the highways budget so severely that reductions in the repair schedule are inevitable.