KEEP ROAD OPEN PLEA BY POLICE; Traffic cops in row with Kirklees

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), March 26, 2008

Byline: By ANDREW HIRST Deputy News Editor

POLICE say a road due to be shut off by Kirklees should remain open.

Kirklees Council is to ban traffic from New Laithe Hill at Newsome because of safety fears.

But Sgt Paul Denton, from Huddersfield traffic police, says the move could make the road more dangerous.

The road will be closed next month under an experimental order.

This means the closure will be reviewed every month and if enough people object in writing to the highways department at Flint Street, Fartown, it may be revoked and the road reopened.

At first it will be closed for a six-month trial.

Alan Gibson, who runs the Victoria pub on nearby Jackroyd Lane at Newsome, has already described the move as "scandalous" and complained he was not consulted on the proposal.

But a Kirklees councillor for the area, Andrew Cooper, says traffic has knocked down walls and pedestrians have had to jump out of the way of cars.

Yet Sgt Denton says he can find no history of people being injured there.

He said that if the narrow road was shut it could cause more potential danger, with vehicles coming across the bollards barring the way and having to reverse down the lane.

Sgt Denton added: "Police, fire and ambulance services all objected to the plan, but it seems they have been ignored. This is an important through road from Newsome to Lowerhouses.

"When it is closed it means vehicles - including bin lorries - will have to reverse down it, making it more dangerous. Satnav systems will still show the road as open, which could cause even more problems.

"I'm not sure what criteria they have used to come to this decision. It is a narrow road, but there are places where people can pass." Mr Gibson said earlier: "This decision will be detrimental to my business. I use the road on a daily basis, as do several of my customers who live in Lowerhouses, Longley and Almondbury."

Last year Newsome's three Green Party councillors secured pounds 15,000 to close New Laithe Hill to traffic.

The narrow road connects Newsome to the Fannymoor estate in Longley. It has no footpath in parts and is used by schoolchildren, parents with pushchairs and people in wheelchairs.

But Mr Gibson does not believe it is dangerous.

He said: "As far as I'm aware there have been no injuries ormajor incidents on the road duringmy 12 years in business here in Newsome."

Clr Cooper agreed that there had been no injury accidents on the road and said the measure was being taken to prevent them.

He added that even if the speed limit was lowered to 20mph it remained a narrow, winding road with no pavements and so remained dangerous.

He said the money for the work had come from Kirklees's Huddersfield South-West Area Committee, as the council highways department will only pay for accident prevention work on roads where there is a history of accidents.

"There have been several collisionswithwalls and that road is an accident waiting to happen," said Clr Cooper.

"People are in constant fear of being knocked down on that road. We could not just sit back and ignore it."

He said taxis use it as a short cut and that there had been several road rage incidents, when motorists have come face to face and neither has been prepared to give way."

"The decision to close this road has not been taken lightly," he added. "The easiest thing would be to do nothing, but that would not be the right thing to do."

CAPTION(S):

PROBLEM SPOT: New Laithe Hill, which connects Newsome with the Fannymoor estate and which Kirklees plan to close (PC240308Blaithe-2); ANGRY: Alan Gibson (PC120308Evictoria-1)