Investment will help deliver major highway improvement schemes
Councillors will next week be asked to approve spending that will enable Wirral Council to deliver a programme of road safety, highway improvement and sustainable transport schemes over the next 12 months.
At the meeting of the Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport committee on March 12th, members will also consider other proposed schemes earmarked to receive funding in the following years up to 2027.
The funding is being provided under the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) Combined Authority Transport Plan (CATP) programme for 2024/25.
At the meeting next week, committee members will debate a report setting out how an allocation of £2.16m for 2024/25 will be spent on local road safety schemes, improvements to traffic signals and pedestrian routes and schemes that deliver improved Active Travel options.
The CRSTS CATP is the programme that helps Wirral Council implement some of the most comprehensive highway schemes in the borough, such as the introduction of widespread 20mph speed limits, which is again on the programme for 2024/25 as the council looks to implement phases 3 and 4 of that scheme.
Another project scheduled on this year’s proposed programme are works to improve the safety of all road users at the Spital Crossroads, a junction linking Church Road, Poulton Road and Spital Road in Clatterbridge ward.
The design for this scheme was funded in last year’s CRSTS CATP and this year £550,000 will be invested in carrying out the works to improve safety at this busy junction, which has been the scene of a number of serious road traffic incidents in recent years. Residents and elected members have petitioned for improvements at this junction in recent years and CRSTS CATP funding is being invested to make this happen.
20mph speed limits
The implementation of the second phase of new 20mph speed limits got underway in February with works to install new signs, accompanied in most affected streets by ‘20’ road markings.
The roll out of phase 2 comes as councillors on the Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee will be asked to approve funding from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) Combined Authority Transport Plan (CATP) to progress with consultation and engagement with members of the public on the planned third and fourth phases on the scheme in 2024/25.
Phase 2 will see 15 more areas in Wirral having new, lower speed limits introduced on roads that are primarily residential, around schools or around other places where people congregate or visit such as shops. This is in addition to the 15 areas where 20mph limits were introduced in phase 1.
In total, if phase 3 and 4 go ahead as planned, there will be 52 areas right across Wirral that are affected by the new speed limit. Enforcement of the new 20mph speed limits will be carried out by Merseyside Police.
