Wirral Council to spend almost £1m to impove road safety

Sep 16 2009 by Kevin Core, Birkenhead News

ALMOST £1m will be spent trying to cut the shocking death rate on Wirral’s roads.

Last year, it was revealed the borough had the highest proportion of people killed or seriously injured in car crashes of any built-up area in the country.

Police figures showed the accident rate in Wirral was so high, it was equal to a death or serious injury every other day.

A Wirral Council report said that, although recent figures showed an improvement against government targets, £950,000 will be spent on a road safety action plan and a series of new initiatives to cut the death rate.

Up to £500,000 will be spent on local safety schemes, with the rest of the cash being divided between a massive £250,000 safety drive at junction three of the M53 and safer routes to school schemes.

On Monday work started on another £700,000 road safety scheme at an accident blackspot in Thurstaston which will see a roundabout built at the junction of Telegraph Road, Station Road and Thurstaston Road.

Campaigners – including Pauline Fielding from action group Roadpeace – said building the roundabout was “crucial” because of poor visibility coming out of Station Road.