Warning that Hartlepool's road safety waiting list will last 'decades'

Road improvements in Grange Road, Hartlepool, are one of three safety schemes to be approved recently. Hartlepool Picture by FRANK REID

Council chiefs are to search for extra funding to help carry out 65 road safety schemes on the waiting list – which would currently take "decades" to install.

At the latest Hartlepool Borough Council full council meeting, Labour Councillor Jonathan Brash asked how many road safety schemes are currently on the authority’s waiting list.

Cllr Cameron Stokell, chair of the council’s neighbourhood services committee, replied that there are 65 schemes currently on the list and that it would cost an estimated £3.2million to carry out them all.

Last month the committee approved safety schemes in Throston Grange Lane, Grange Road and Mowbray Road using £170,000 of funds available as part of the Local Transport Plan for 2021-22.

Conservative Cllr Stokell told councillors the schemes are prioritised for selection each year using a matrix, which involves accident statistics, location of road, speeding issues, elected member feedback and more.

Labour’s Cllr Brash called on Cllr Stokell to request officers to look at further funding avenues, such as using capital expenditure, to allow them to implement more schemes sooner.

He said: “It will take decades to get through that waiting list. There isn’t a ward representative in this town I don’t think who doesn’t have at least one road on that waiting list.

“The limitation here clearly is the use of revenue budget, very limited, to fund these schemes.”

Cllr Stokell said he “totally agreed” with the need for greater funding, adding: “Some of those we all have concerns on and that is why the matrix is the best way to prioritise at the minute, but I will definitely take up with officers the suggestions put forward.”