Major grant will finance safety work on Trans Pennine route

Details of serious incidents are recorded by local authorities to help determine where improvement works should be carried out and although they do not show any particular problems with the A628, the Department for Transport has identified a section between the Hoylandswaine roundabout and the Flouch roundabout, a road which weaves through Penistone, Thurlstone and Millhouse Green, as one of the top 50 roads in the country where safety could be improved.

That status opened the door for Barnsley Council to bid for Government funding of up to £200,000 per kilometre of road and they were awarded the maximum amount, which means a total of £1.4m for the full seven kilometre stretch.

The money comes on top of the council’s regular highways budget and staff will now work up schemes for how it can be used to improve safety along the route, which carries high densities of traffic using the Woodhead Pass.

A stipulation of the award is that the money has to be spent by 2020, which means road users and residents should see results starting to appear relatively quickly.

The award is likely to be welcome news in Millhouse Green, where the road has a 40 mph speed limit despite being close to the village’s primary school.

Several years ago Barnsley Council was handed a petition asking for improved safety measures, because many of those attending school have to cross the carriageway, though no work has so far resulted from that.

There is also an old Gatso speed camera on a 30 mph section of the route, which pre-dates the current South Yorkshire Camera Partnership, to help control traffic speeds on the approach to a congested section of road in Thurlstone.