Sheffield road safety schemes target city schools and major routes

A meeting of Sheffield City Council’s finance and performance policy committee (July 22) agreed to funding for the projects.

The council’s School Streets budget will be increased from £203,700 to £530,000 to allow it to temporarily close off traffic to roads around five schools during term time as children arrive and leave. Latest primary schools named are Broomhill Infants, Mundella, Pye Bank, Pipworth and Hunters Bar Infants.

Other plans include spending £57,000 of government funding on feasibility studies to see what pedestrian improvements could be made on Handsworth Grange Road, Crookes Valley Road and Abbeydale Road.

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A budget of £400,000, also funded by the Department of Transport, will be used to make experimental changes permanent in the Crookes Walkley active travel scheme area. It includes installing kerbing, planting and bollards plus associated signing, lines and camera enforcement.

Changes planned:

• Two part-time traffic filters on Mona Avenue near Westways School;
• Five two-way traffic filters in Walkey at Highton Street, Fir Street, Matlock Road;
• Two-way traffic filters in Newent Lane and Hands Road, Crookes;
• Two one-way traffic filters at either end of Greenhow Street;
• A continuous footway in Crookes local centre.

A temporary crossing at the junction of Crookesmoor Road and Conduit Road in the active travel area will also be made permanent and become a zebra crossing. It was originally intended to be signal controlled.

A Penistone Road active travel scheme will benefit from £390,000 for designs to create improvements to the cycle lane and walking environment from Rutland Road through to Claywheels Lane.

It will also investigate extending the cycle lane and improving walking from Claywheels Lane to Yewlands Academy and the creation of cycle links from Walkley, Hillsborough, Southey and Parson Cross.The aim is to support sustainable travel to schools near the route, directly linking to Yewlands Academy and Mansell, Chaucer, Meynell and Parkwood schools.

Councillors agreed to increase the budget for improving pedestrian facilities at the junction of Jenkin Road, Holywell Road and Tyler Street, Brightside from £52,400 to £64,000. The aim is “safer accessibility routes for all pedestrians but particularly for the primary school aged children attending Brightside Nursery and Infant School”, said a report to the committee.