The petition of residents of the constituency of Rother Valley,
Declares that measures are needed to combat traffic congestion and speeding in the villages of Aughton and Guilthwaite; further that the Treeton Lane/Main Street/ Pleasley Road and Ulley Lane crossroads require a road safety and traffic management scheme; and further that road safety measures are needed at the Robin Hood pub junction in Aston as expanding housing estates nearby are putting increased pressure on this junction, making safe emergence difficult and time consuming.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to call on Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to work alongside the Sheffield Mayoral Combined Authority and that they consider the use of funding from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements scheme to devise a package of improvements to Pleasley Road and Ulley Crossroads that promotes road safety and active travel, and supports public transport expansion to ease congestion.
And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Alexander Stafford, Official Report, 19 March 2024; Vol. 747, c. 903.]
[P002924]
Observations from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Guy Opperman):
As Roads Minister, I am committed to improving road safety throughout the country. Through the safer roads fund, this Government have invested £100 million since April 2017 in improving the top 50 most high-risk roads in England. In April 2023 we added a further £47.5 million to the fund, bringing the total number of roads being improved to 83.
This includes a 50% funding uplift to invest £5.1 million for tackling the priority roads across Yorkshire and Humber, including A6022 between Swinton and Mexborough and A625 between Sheffield and Whirlow.
Local authorities (LAs) are responsible for managing their roads. The Traffic Management Act 2004 places the network management duty on them to manage roads as efficiently as possible for the benefit of all traffic, including pedestrians and cyclists. LAs have a wide range of traffic management measures and tools available to them to fulfil this duty, and it is for them to decide how to use these to address local issues.
To enable this, as part of the traffic signals upgrade and maintenance grants included in “Plan for Drivers”, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has received £500,000 grant funding from the traffic signal obsolescence grant to update and renew traffic signal equipment. They will also share in an award of £326,615 made to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA).
As set out in the devolution deal between central Government and SMYCA, central funding for local transport was consolidated and devolved to SYMCA. This means that responsibility for highways maintenance and development, and delivery of other local infrastructure, is directed by local prioritisation decisions. As part of the city region sustainable transport settlements (CRSTS), these priorities were submitted to the Department by the Mayor in early 2022 and were agreed in the delivery plans published on
www.gov.uk.
I have listened and will continue to listen to the views of all road users to ensure that we build on the Department’s ongoing work as outlined above to improve road safety.