Transport priorities agreed

Councillors agreed the three priorities to go forward for funding in the county council’s Local Transport Plan 2018/19 at last week’s meeting.

The local authority sets aside funding for transport projects in towns and parishes across the county each year, but there is no guarantee that any of an individual community’s schemes will go ahead.

Alnwick’s first priority is work to sort out the Cobbles as the poor condition is causing serious issue for pedestrians.

The town council appreciates that an overhaul of the whole area would be prohibitively expensive so wants to see work done in a phased approach, starting with the pedestrian walkway down to the crossing on Market Street.

The second priority relates to the need for new crossings at several key junctions in the town, made more urgent by the fact that the routes are now used by large numbers of children going to the Duchess’s Community High School at Greensfield.

This includes a safe crossing place at the junction at the bottom of Wagonway Road and Prudhoe Street, a pedestrian crossing by the Co-op on Victoria Terrace, and the need to extend the pavements so that there is safe access to the school from the Weavers Way turning circle.

The final priority relates to making the town centre more pedestrian-friendly, particularly from Narrowgate round to Bailiffgate where there is a ‘lack of a clear throroughfare for pedestrians’.

A controversial shared-space scheme was mooted in 2015, but this has gone quiet and members feel some improvements are required.