An extra £1.5 million will be spent on Shropshire’s roads-mainly on road safety schemes and the installation of cycle routes and crossings.
The funding has come from the Community Infrastructure Levy scheme, via developers who are building housing schemes in the region.
One of the biggest schemes to have been given approval is a £225,000 safety improvements scheme in the Ruyton-XI-Towns area of the county, near Oswestry. There has been a safety concern around the lorries using the village to avoid the A5 for several years and the highways upgrade bids to solve the issue.
Work will start on some of the 34 projects soon with some needing public consultation and planning, according to the Shropshire Star.
Footway schemes amounting to £145,000 have been given the go ahead in Church Stretton and Cleobury Mortimer; £140,000 has been approved for speed reduction or safety schemes in Ellesmere, Highley and Wem; £184,000 has been earmarked for crossing schemes in Ludlow, Market Drayton and Shrewsbury; while £143,000 has been approved for cycle routes in Shrewsbury.
Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities, Place Planning and Regulatory Services, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be able to approve millions of pounds of funding towards vital highways schemes the length and breadth of Shropshire.
“Some really important schemes have been funded here by money that has come from developers via the Community Infrastructure Levy, and supports some of the issues that development has caused in our towns and villages. These are schemes which will meet the demand from where housing developments have taken place. These schemes are just from the highways section of funding applications that have been submitted for this year, and the schemes have been identified from our local communities in our local Place Plans.
“We are really focussed on making our roads safer and greener, and these schemes will help with that. This is a further example of us listening to communities about what they want to happen in their area. To approve six cycle schemes in Shrewsbury alone is a major step towards what we are hoping to achieve. We had so many worthy schemes put forward and it is great to be able to give so many approvals.
