Council stops £200 road safety scheme

Road safety schemes costing as little as a few hundred pounds have been put on hold by a local council.

Officials working for Conservative-led South Gloucestershire Council have had to stop working on small road safety schemes because transport chiefs in charge of the Council have frozen their budget. However, junior officials only found out when local councillors asked why certain schemes had not been carried out. 

Local councillors for Woodstock in Kingswood, Roger Coales, Andy Perkins and Pat Rooney (Labour) had been campaigning for two years for some Keep Clear markings to be installed at the junction of Fairview Road to improve visibility for drivers turning onto Orchard Vale. However, despite being told in March that the scheme could finally go ahead, the markings had still not been put down at the beginning of November. 

The councillors explained; 

“When we asked why the lines had not been put down we were told that the budget to pay for them had been frozen but that the officials undertaking the design work had not been told. It was the managers above them who knew. The markings we want to see put down only cost £200 at most – including the design work.” 

Local campaigner Gareth Manson who is working alongside the councillors as part of their campaign team added; 

“Sometimes the simplest and cheapest of measures can improve the safety of our roads, yet the Conservatives running the Council have put an arbitrary stop to these schemes. Restricted visibility was a factor in the two recorded accidents at the junction of Fairview Road and Orchard Vale. Surely the Conservatives can find £200 to make this junction a little safer.”