21st July 2005

BYRNE DEMANDS COUNCIL SPEND ROAD SAFETY CASH

Liam Byrne, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill will today meet with council road safety chiefs to demand they speed up plans to spend millions of pounds of Government money on improving road safety around the constituency.

The Hodge Hill MP, has focused on improving road safety in the constituency since his election in 2004, conducted his own survey of residents last year to uncover the real accident hot spots in Hodge Hill. In February this year he submitted 17 extra roads that local people said needed traffic calming.

In March 2006, the council admitted that 7 of those roads were accident black-spots, and agreed to conduct further investigation into the causes and potential remedies for those roads. Liam is now demanding that the council use the £6 million given to them by central Government as part of the Streets Ahead on Safety Project, to make a real difference on our streets.

Liam said

“This is one of those policy areas where delays and stalling are not an option. The Government have given council have been given this money to make our roads safer for young and old alike – it’s simply unacceptable that progress is so slow’.

“Residents’ know where the problems are – on the 17 roads submitted to me, 221 accidents have been reported. That tells me there is a real problem. Today I’m demanding to know why there’s been no action, and at the end of the meeting I want a clear timetable so that I can let local people know when work will get started.’

ENDS