Tag: road safety

Road safety scheme outside Sandpits school to be installed before the summer – we need more safety schemes

Road safety scheme outside Sandpits school to be installed before the summer – we need more safety schemes

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.

Sandpits Road closed from 13 July 2020 to February 2021 for utility and safety works – New Road is one way from October to February

Sandpits Road closed from 13 July 2020 to February 2021 for utility and safety works – New Road is one way from October to February

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.

Essential Ludlow school safety scheme in Sandpits delayed by Severn Trent Water works

Essential Ludlow school safety scheme in Sandpits delayed by Severn Trent Water works

“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.

New road safety work will include a calming scheme outside Ludlow Infants School in Sandpits

New road safety work will include a calming scheme outside Ludlow Infants School in Sandpits

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 bump, crash and injury – Shropshire Council is to slow down pothole repairs and pavements will be more dangerous

More bump, crash and injury – Shropshire Council is to slow down pothole repairs and pavements will be more dangerous

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.

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