VILLAGE VOICE: “No benefit to Dobcross roundabout scheme”

From Peter Widdall, Greenfield, (Formerly Group Leader, Road Safety (Engineering) and Development Control, Manchester City Council)

I was interested to read your article in the August edition headed: “Not so magic roundabout”, with the comment that “roadworks scheme baffles councillors.”

These works, at the junction of Wool Road (A670) and Sandy Lane certainly baffle me, especially, assuming the report is correct, when there have been NO reported accidents in the last 10 years.

How can the scheme result in safety benefits when there is no record of accidents?

If the argument is that the scheme will reduce speeds, I would still ask why. In my experience, a scheme to reduce speed was really only justified if the record of injury accidents was significant and speed could be shown to be a contributory factor.

But then my experience was based on proven road accident reduction and prevention techniques.

Sadly, as a result of local authority budgets being cut year after year, I believe this area of knowledge is now sadly lacking. The words “safety” and “improvement” are being used too loosely these days to justify schemes.

So, what are the benefits of this scheme? I would say NIL. The disbenefits are several.

The new layout will require maintenance, the signs need illuminating and the money could have been better spent on more deserving sites.

When single site schemes are difficult to identify and justify, money in budgets for this kind of work should be directed at maintaining good road surfaces, quality road markings and signing and good street lighting – and not on pointless mini roundabouts, magic or not.