Barnsley road safety petition thrown out

More than 200 residents signed a petition calling for improved road safety on Carr Green Lane, Mapplewell,

The petition, collected and presented to the Labour ruling cabinet by Barnsley’s Lib Dems, states: ” Road safety concerns on Carr Green Lane have been raised by many residents and our local neighbourhood policing team are also worried.

“The problem is in relation to the bend up the hill from the new housing development. A combination of increased traffic volumes and resident vehicles parked around the bend are causing the problem. We have heard of accidents and near misses in the location.

“Let’s take action before there is a serious injury or worse.”

However, the council’s traffic team said they “do not support” the proposal, as there is “no history of Personal Injury Collisions (PICs) at the point in question within the last five years and only one slight PIC on the whole of Carr Green Lane”.

Councillor Chris Lamb, cabinet spokesperson for environment and transportation told today’s cabinet meeting (March 24), that cash for road safety schemes is justified on the basis of the number of accidents.

He added: “Installing traffic calming measures without justification on an accident basis leaves the council open to criticism that there is no human or cost benefit to society; an investment of thousandsof pounds with no substantial return to the tax payer.

“We could also not justify to local communities where road users have been killed and seriously injured in speed related collisions, expenditure on a location that has no justification in terms of an historic accident basis.”

Coun Sharon Howard added: “We’ve got a role here to play, wherever possible, asking residents to look at their speed, because it’s mainly people that live in that area that use the roads in the area, or the people who go through.”