£600,000 be spent on Telford schools road safety scheme

Telford & Wrekin Council said a new round of funding will mean it can finish more school safety schemes by the end of next summer.

There will be 35 schools where the improvements will be made, and they will include traffic calming measures, such as 20mph speed signing and speed indicator devices.

The schools were identified in a review and road safety and highways officers are meeting with them over the coming months to come up with plans.

The council says the plan is for all schemes to be delivered by the end of summer 2019.

Schools not included have either had road safety work undertaken recently or already have work scheduled as part of other projects planned, such as the Newport £300,000 package of improvements or Capital Programme investment.

Councillor Shaun Davies, leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, said: “Understanding the issues that each school has will determine the types of safety schemes that are put in place. While it can never be a one-size-fits-all approach, issues outside schools being raised do tend to be around speeds, pedestrian safety and inappropriate parking.

“Our road safety team has been working with schools to offer road safety advice and encourage children and their parents or guardians to travel to school on foot or bike, reducing the amount of traffic on the roads. They will continue to work with schools, as our road safety data shows that schools which actively engage with the team have fewer road safety incidents.

“This £600,000 investment will see a range of physical measures that will help to improve safety. We are also working on plans to take over new parking enforcement powers from the police in 2019. These powers will enable us to more effectively target problem parking around schools.”