Plan for safer access to new health centre

County council highways officers have come up with a plan to make for safer pedestrian access to Llangollen’s new health centre.  

As revealed by llanblogger last week, at their recent meeting a number of Town Council members voiced concerns about how people making their way on foot to the new centre will cope with what has been described as a traffic “pinch point” where the main A539 narrows just past the Four Poster B&B.

The issue was raised for debate by the mayor, Cllr Bob Lube, who said: “Access to the centre site can be extremely dangerous and I think we should discuss this.”

Cllr Sheena Burrell said: “We have been told that access will be made safer by bringing the traffic speed down to 30mph and putting in pelican crossings.

“The possibility of a footbridge over the river has also been mentioned by some people but we have been told this would be too expensive.

“I’m really dreading it. It’s damn dangerous because everything seems to overhang the road at that point and it’s quite dark.

“It’s going to be absolutely horrendous. If you get a wagon or a bus going past there as people are walking by it’s a recipe for disaster.”

She added: “I am recommending that we invite someone here from the county council to tell us exactly what they are going to do about it.”

Her recommendation was unanimously approved by members and the town clerk was authorised to invite a representative from the county’s highways department to address a future meeting of the council on the issue.     

Local county councillor Stuart Davies later contacted llanblogger to say that he had asked county highways officers to a site meeting to discuss the safety concerns.

After the meeting he said: “I wanted controlled crossings but the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which is developing the new health centre, only talked about crossings.

"To address residents' concerns, I called for the site meeting to investigate. I was informed by our officers that the controlled crossings cannot be done because of the nature of the road there.

“What we are going to do is create `jut-outs’ in the road, which will mean that traffic travelling along there has priority one way and not the other. 

“This will have the effect of slowing the traffic down as one side stops to allow the other side to pass.

“It will have a natural traffic calming effect and I’m confident traffic will be slowed down.

“We’ll also have pink patches painted on the road to warn traffic it is approaching a slower section.  
 
“This sort of thing is doen quite a lot in Wrexham and I think this will be a good compromise for the A539.”