Council to conduct reviews into road safety and 'diabolical' election count

Telford & Wrekin councillors met on Wednesday night for their first communities scrutiny committee since May's local elections.

They discussed their work programme for the next two years, and an election review looking at the count process and best practice was high on the agenda.

Councillor Peter Scott, ward member for Newport West, described the local election count last month as being ‘diabolical’.

He said: “I’m pleased to see the election review as it was diabolical.

“It took far too long, people were going out on breaks en masse. At the count - I got there at 11.30pm but didn’t get my result until 6.30am, it was just sat in a box for five hours.

“It’s definitely something to consider.”

Councillor Angela McClements said that the election review needed to be done while "it was fresh in their mind".

Richard Phillips, service delivery manager, assured councillors that the election review was set to be discussed "sooner rather than later".

He suggested that councillors could hold a mock election count as part of their discussions.

Councillor Gareth Thomas, ward member for Wrockwardine, asked for road safety outside schools and residential areas to be placed on the work programme for the committee.

He raised concerns about the new primary school set to be opened as part of the redevelopment of the Allscott British Sugar site.

The school is placed between the B4394 and the Wellington-to-Shrewsbury railway line.

Councillor Thomas said: “The new school in Allscott will open in September and there is a really hazardous road outside. Speeding in residential areas across the board should be top of the agenda.”

The committee heard that speeding had previously been on the agenda and a working group had looked at the issue.

Councillor Stephen Handley, ward member for St Georges, said that he had requested traffic-calming measures outside a school in his constituency.

“I’ve asked for speed bumps and a pelican crossing,” said Councillor Handley.

“There isn’t enough traffic for the pelican crossing, but they do go quite fast.”

Councillor Handley added that there was also a problem with safety at the park in St Georges where children were running straight out into the road. The ward councillor said that he had asked for an additional fence to be placed outside the park.

“I’ve asked for that, but nothing has been done about it,” said Councillor Handley.

It was said that the committee could not investigate individual cases but could look at road safety as a subject.

Executive director Angie Astley said that road safety was brought forward 10 months ago, but the communities scrutiny committee’s members had since changed.

“We can bring that back and have a refresh,” said Mrs Astley. “Anything individual in a ward should be picked up with [council] officers separately.”

Councillor McClements said that how the funding for domestic abuse victims is being spent is also something that could be included on the work programme.

She added: “This is an opportunity for us to bring our own ideas, look at something and then follow something through and add value to it.”

Already placed on the work programme is a review of the council’s equality and diversity strategy and a review of the Social Value in Contracts scheme.