Call for cameras to cut crashes at blackspot
POLICE want to install red light and speed cameras to reduce crashes at the dangerous Fiveways junction in Ormskirk.
Lancashire Constabulary is waiting for Home Office approval to use the cameras in an effort to prevent dangerous driving at the junction which links County Road with Southport Road and Halsall Lane.
The speed limit along County Road was reduced from 40mph to 30mph last year in order to reduce the number of collisions at Fiveways and the nearby junction with Hayfield Road, where two men died in the space of four months in 2017 and 2018.
Similar devices have been set up around Merseyside in recent months and are used not only to monitor drivers who proceed through red lights, but also record the speed of those going through green.
After a van overturned in the latest crash at the junction earlier this month, West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper wrote to both Lancashire County Council and Lancashire Constabulary.
She said:
“Having received the response from Lancashire Constabulary confirming to me that they were experiencing a delay in receiving Home Office Type Approval for a non-invasive solution to safety issues at the Fiveways junction, I immediately wrote to the Home Secretary asking that she move this on.
“The police are keen to install a system at this junction to deal with offences of excessive speed and drivers ignoring the traffic lights, and I believe enforcement cameras would serve as a helpful deterrent.
“For too long we have witnessed crash after
A ROW over plans to convert Ormskirk School into an academy reached Parliament last week as the Department for Education (DfE) was questioned.
The school is being changed to academy status by the DfE in a process triggered by a poor Ofsted inspection – a move that has been opposed by campaigners.
Matters were further complicated when the Ormskirk School Foundation Trust, which owns the land the school sits on, vowed to take legal action to “protect its assets” after not being involved in any consultations.
West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper then made a surprise intervention to crash, injuries and lives lost at junctions on County Road. Enough!
“I will continue to campaign for road safety improvements at this junction and on this stretch of County Road.” question whether the charitable trust’s funds were being used appropriately in the legal process, only to receive a swift and comprehensive rebuttal from chairman Rose Halsall.
Now, Ms Cooper has taken the issue to Westminster, writing to school standards minister Nick Gibb asking whether the building of the current Ormskirk School using funding from his department was conditional on the terms of the Ormskirk
Foundation Trust and the local authority.
Mr Gibb replied: “Ormskirk School moved to its new accommodation in 2004.
“The land had been part of the site of the former Cross Hall High School, a community school, and was transferred by Lancashire County Council (LCC) in February 2006 to five named individuals who were trustees of the foundation trust of the school.
“The Department for Education was not party to that transfer. The 2006 Charity Commission scheme for the foundation trust provides for the foundation trust to retain the land for use as a voluntary school.”