Heather said “Seven speeding tickets were issued in Worthen/Brockton today (2nd Jan) by the police. 10 Verbal Warnings were also given. That’s the fourth time we have had this speed limit enforced. Good news. We just need the police to keep coming so that people get the message!
Marton needs its road markings repainted before they go there again. Then we need to work on Stiperstones!
Heather Kidd, Councillor for Chirbury and Worthen, has warned Shropshire Council that it faces a spate of injury claims after a number of accidents in her ward.
Council cutbacks are beginning to impact seriously on the infrastructure of roads and drains throughout the County. For example drains and that are cleared twice a year may not be emptied when the leaves have fallen or harvest vehicles dropping straw. There is now no flexibility to clean them again and blocked gullies in the autumn can cause serious runoff which is now freezing in the cold weather. This not only damages the road surface but is now beginning to cause accidents. Sometimes it is simply because gullies have not been mended while they wait for the work programme to reach them. Similarly there are significant stretches of road in which the verges are beginning to seriously subside and require urgent attention.
In my Ward alone I have had two pedestrians fall recently on ice from poorly drained roads .One, who broke her wrist, is seriously thinking of suing the council. She is not the only one and civil action against the council will grow unless the administration starts putting more resources into maintaining the County’s infrastructure.
It is a similar picture on the roads – several stretches in my area are now becoming positively dangerous due to prioritising of works at the centre. In one stretch outside Worthen alone there have been three accidents this winter because the council have repeatedly failed to address the camber problem even after a gritter came off there last winter! The narrow road from Snailbeach to Stiperstones has warning posts leaning over the edge and even the Stiperstones sign is leaning. What happens if a car goes over the edge when it pulls over to let a bus through?
Although many of the staff in the Council’s Highways Department are working very hard and are very committed to their jobs they can only do so much with the resources they have. I will be having a meeting with the South Highways Team in the next couple of weeks to try to move these things on and will be discussing this with the area director on Wednesday. We do not need any more serious accidents.