WARRINGTON council’s controversial Bridgefoot roadworks have cost in excess of £25,000 – including £5,000 to perform a u-turn following a storm of protest from angry motorists.
Works to rectify the issues with the new lane markings on the Wilson Patten Street approach to the Bridgefoot roundabout have now been completed, with an estimated cost of £5,000 to Warrington Borough Council for the additional work, subject to final confirmation with the contractor.
The cost of the entire scheme including re-marking all roundabout lanes and approach roads plus new directional signage was £25,923. 
Cllr Linda Dirir, (pictured) the executive board member for highways, transportation and climate change at the council says the work was essential, as the markings had become faded due to the heavy traffic flows on the roundabout.
This cost is as a result of the renewal of lane markings around the whole of the Bridgefoot roundabout and its approaches being undertaken over a number of weeks.
Extensive traffic management measures were required at weekends and overnight during the works to ensure the safety of the travelling public and the contractors working on site.
This work was funded by the annual road markings renewal budget and by the 2012/13 Local Transport Plan monies.
Cllr Dirir said: “The renewal of these road markings was part of a wider programme of work to refresh faded lines across the borough’s road network. This work is undertaken annually for the safety of the travelling public.
“This time the opportunity was taken to change road markings at Bridgefoot with the intention of improving traffic flows. Whilst some of the changes introduced have worked well, the changes on Wilson Patten Street lead to increase traffic queues and following significant feedback from motorists, senior councillors undertook an urgent review of the plans with officers. This has resulted in the changes made this week.”
Drivers are asked to look out for the temporary signage and new fixed signs in the area and be vigilant to the changes in the layout.
Bridgefoot roadworks cost £25k
77 Comments
Share.
About Author
Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
7 Comments
Councillor Hannon has recently stated, on this website, that under the previous regime the members failed to control the actions of the officers – and by implcation that was no longer the case, so Councillor Dirrir needs to take full responsibilty for this decision and face the facts – the time to conduct a “review of the plans with officers” was before their implementation – that way this fiasco could have been avoided.
Don’t call Mike Hannon. I went to a meeting on Monday to discuss proposals to stop traffic entering Smith Drive and the associated roads. Cllr Hannon was at the meeting as well as the police . I can confirm that under his chair all persons were allowed to express their opinion. at times quite heated but have their say they did.
officers were at the meeting so all were heard thanks to Cllr Hannon.
I’ve no intention of calling Cllr Hannon – i don’t even have his number.
I know from meeting him Cllr Hannon is honourable and well intentioned. But he brought the criticism upon himself because of an ill advise sound bite. It is always best not to snipe at others when the thing you are sniping about comes back to bite you. People in glass houses….???
I believe that most councillors will be honourable and well intentioned. Unfortunately, they have also been profoundly weak in their dealings on a number of issues and it is this that makes them open to criticism. They cannot expect this situation to change while their main priority when things go wrong is not to get to the root cause but to try to cover up the problem. This was clearly an incompetent decision by people in the Highways department and they should be looking at how to deal with that. It may not be a disciplinary matter but it is an issue of the competence of council employees. It’s no good cutting £100,000 off the budget by removing front line services if a) some employees can’t do their job and b) some of them are completely overpaid, especially those in senior positions.
Could someone please look at putting a crossing of some sort on Loushers lane.
This road is very dangerous to try and cross. You have a local school and cub groups
Who risk lives try to cross this fast road. Please please please spend some monies
Here.
This whole fiasco happened simply because Councillors do not control the Council. Officers, especially senior ones, are allowed to do just as they want without any method of control. Councillor O’Neill promised, when he was re-elected to the Leader of the Council, that ALL Officers would be brought under control of OUR elected representatives. I have yet to see any evidence of this. If the Council were serious in its endeavour to be more democratic they it would have returned to the tried and tested Committee structure through which to run the Council. Lack of progress on this issue is cause for concern since national polls tell us that this what the elctorate wants. An autocratic “Cabinet” simply does not work!