Clock ticks on cash for dangerous roads

TIME is running out for planning chiefs in Kirklees to adopt a charging schedule that will guarantee money is paid to the local council by house builders.

Road safety campaigners say the cash – the rate of tax per square metre that developers pay to the council for each house they build – could be used to fund vital infrastructure on dangerous roads.

Liberal Democrat councillors Alison Munro and Paola Davies, who represent Almondbury, are pushing for improvements to the A629 Penistone Road at Fenay Bridge, which has been the scene of several accidents in recent months.

So far their calls for action at the notorious accident blackspot have fallen on deaf ears.

Now they are urging the Labour-led authority to adopt the charging schedule, which was approved by a Planning Inspector in January, ‘at the very first opportunity.’

In announcing an overhaul of England’s planning system, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said the Government would replace existing Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – which pay for improvements and infrastructure such as school places, GP surgeries and highways – with a national charge.

“The sweeping new Tory planning regulations may bypass the need for developers to pay this tax to the council,” said Clr Munro.

“If the council adopted the charging schedule, however, and introduced it as a matter of urgency, it will mean that the CIL monies or tax paid by developers referred to earlier could raise over £1m alone from the houses planned to be built in Fenay Bridge and Lepton on just two sites.

“Such monies could be used to fund the road infrastructure in Fenay Bridge, such as providing traffic lights at the junction with Station Road and Penistone Road, or a safe crossing at Penistone Road in Fenay Bridge for pupils who walk to

King James’s School, the only secondary school in our area. Additionally it could go towards helping to fund a new much-needed safe cycle route in Lepton and Fenay Bridge as mentioned in the council’s Local Walking and Cycling Implementation Plan (LWCIP).”

In June, following pressure from Clr Munro, senior Labour councillor Rob Walker said highways officers were ‘looking at taking more substantial action’ to tackle the danger junction.

His pledge followed four accidents involving vehicles, cyclists and a motorcyclist in just 16 days

However, just days later the council backtracked, saying there was no money to fund a major scheme that might cut accidents.

Clr Munro has raised two petitions over the Station Road/Penistone Road junction.

One called for a reduction of the speed limit along Penistone Road. The other requested the installation of traffic lights.

They were signed by more than 1,650 people.