£90,000 Willenhall road scheme gets a start date

A £90,000 scheme to improve an accident-plagued road in Willenhall is due to start in just over a month's time, it emerged today. Clarkes Lane has been the scene of 18 accidents in the past three years.

It has prompted plans for anti-skid surfacing and pedestrian refuges along the road. Work, which will also include new road markings and signs, was initially due to start last month but council bosses instead said the scheme was still in the planning and design stages.

Plans have been tweaked and work is now due to get under way in the week beginning January 30.

Willenhall councillor Ian Shires, who has been pushing for action along the main route, said: "This needs to be done. There was a fatal accident last year.

"It is a major route and is used by HGVs because there is Ashmore Lake Industrial Estate right next door.

"The fact that they have a date looks like things are moving forward. I will be watching with great care to see if they adhere to that date.

"What worries me about things that get pushed back into the first quarter of the year is that, if you don't watch it, time could run out before the end of the financial year."

The work will be carried out between Stroud Avenue and Walsall Road.

The borough's transport boss, Councillor Tom Ansell, said 174 consultation packs outlining the proposed details of the scheme were delivered to residents.

Meanwhile, a busy Walsall crossroads where there have been five serious crashes in the last three years is in line to get £156,000 of improvements. There have been a further five crashes at the junction of Walstead Road and Delves Green Road.

By Lisa O'Brien