Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to ensure that (a) Shropshire Council, (b) Telford and Wrekin Council and (c) Highways England put in place road safety improvements to reduce the number of road deaths and injuries on roads in (i) Shropshire and (ii) Telford and Wrekin.
Andrew Jones
Local authorities are responsible for road safety on the local road network. Section 39 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 puts a ‘statutory duty’ on the local authorities to deliver an appropriate road safety education service and for the provision of a safe local road network.
It is up to individual authorities to determine how they meet their “statutory duty”. However, following the 2015 Spending Review the Government will continue to provide funding through the Integrated Transport block for local highway authorities to support small-scale initiatives, including road safety schemes. This funding is not ring-fenced and gives local authorities the freedom to develop and implement solutions which best suit their localities.
More widely, from within the record £6.1 billion to be allocated to local highways authorities between 2015 and 2021 for road maintenance, Shropshire has been allocated £86million and Telford and Wrekin £18million (including indicative allocations from 2018/19 to 2020/21) plus Telford has also been allocated £10.3million from the Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund. This compares to £79million allocated to Shropshire and £15.6million to Telford and Wrekin covering the period 2010 to 2015.
Highways England has made a commitment to review routes in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin over the next five years.
Safety improvements are proposed on the A5/B5070 at Gledrid Roundabout in the 2016/17 financial year. Potential safety schemes have also been identified in Shropshire, and in Telford & Wrekin, and these will be considered over the 5-year Roads Investment Strategy. These are detailed below.
- A483 Maesbury Road
- A49/A456 Wooferton
- A5 Montford Bridge and Shrawardine Junctions
- A5/B5009 Gobowen
- A49 Laybys
All of these works will be subject to available funding and are not, as yet, programmed for delivery.
An A5 corridor study has also been commissioned to identify a long term strategy for addressing the changing needs and function of the A5 trunk road corridor between Chirk and Preston Boats. This study will consider current issues with the existing corridor, summarising the implications of growth and providing a set of highway options to address congestion and safety, for consideration within future financial years.
