Shropshire village ‘missing out on road safety work’

Councillors from Weston Rhyn - which has twice missed out on the inclusion of its road safety submission in Shropshire Council's highways programme - made their frustration known to the leader of the unitary authority this week.

Peter Nutting warned that finances were tight and road improvements had to be prioritised.

Councillor Nutting attended the September parish council meeting to address the highway issues flagged up by councillors.

He was told that in 2015 the parish followed advice from Shropshire councillors and produced a professional, risk assessed, road safety submission for inclusion in the roads programme.

"The submission was unsuccessful and we were advised to resubmit it for the February 2017 deadline," parish clerk, Mr Roger Dyke said.

"It was revisited, updated and submitted but again were not successful."

The submission asked for safety improvements outside the village primary school and new footway/visibility improvements by the Plough public house.

Councillor Nutting urged the council to resubmit for the 2018-19 capital programmed, concentrating on the safety issues around the primary school.

"You need to be award however that the priority for these will be judged against countywide schemes."

Parish councillors pointed to individual problems such as a large pothole by the primary school that had, they said, been 'bodged' at least four times but never properly resurfaced. It was again in urgent need of repair.

Mr Chris Edwards, head of infrastructure and communities for Shropshire council, said the pothole was not a safety defect as determined in the current highway inspection manual.

"The pothole has had a temporary repair until our contractor can programme a permanent repair," he said.

He said contractors had also been instructed to repair defects on the five-way roundabout in the middle of the village.

Parish councillors also called for a 30 mile an hour flashing, vehicle activated sign for Weston Rhyn and were told they would need to be submitted through the road safety scheme process.

However they were told that the council would not support a bid to have the main road reclassified as a B road, a campaign the parish says, has constantly fallen on deaf ears.

Mr Edwards said: "It is not appropriate to reclassify Station Road as a B road. It would not attract any additional funding and would not affect its inspection or maintenance regime. However it would attract additional traffic, particularly when the A5 was busy or closed."