MP joins fight for road relief

Pensioner John Pritchard started his campaign at the beginning of April, after watching children from Blessed Edward Oldcorne RC High School and Cherry Orchard Primary School, trying to cross the busy Worcester road.

The 74-year-old wrote to Mike Foster about the problem and now he has the MP's backing.

Mr Foster said in a letter that he fully supported the extension of the Safer Routes to Schools schemes along Timberdine Avenue - but that local councillors had been slow to commit funds to enable this to happen.

"For me it's nonsense," said Mr Foster.

"It's a straight and wide road and cries out for measures to slow down traffic.

"If they haven't done Timberdine then councillors should be held responsible for it."

Worcestershire County Council applies for Government funds for traffic-calming projects, then the money is allocated to various areas within the county as a whole.

A Safer Routes to Schools project was set up in the Nunnery Wood area - but that didn't include Timberdine Avenue.

Mr Pritchard was also prompted to write to Mr Foster after a speeding car crashed into a parked car opposite his house.

"Had there been school children walking there at the time, it would probably have injured three or four of them," said Mr Pritchard.

"I would like to see speed reduced to 20mph and speed ramps installed."

Andy Walford, principal engineer at Worcester Transport Partnership Unit - representing both the city and county councils - said they had only received £50,000 for transportation initiatives in Worcester because other funding had been given to the park-and-ride scheme.

No money

"We are not getting the funding that's required, and we have no money this year for new schemes for Safer Routes to Schools," he said.

"We are aware that there is a need for further money to be spent in certain parts of the city.

"We are going to carry out an assessment this year to find out what further works to schools in the city are required."