COUNCILLORS will meet next week to approve spending on a programme of road safety, highway improvement and sustainable transport schemes over the next 12 months.

At the meeting of Wirral Council's Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport committee on March 12th, members will also consider other proposed schemes earmarked to receive funding in the following years up to 2027.

The funding is being provided under the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) Combined Authority Transport Plan (CATP) programme for 2024/25.

At the meeting next week, committee members will debate a report setting out how an allocation of £2.16m for 2024/25 will be spent on local road safety schemes, improvements to traffic signals and pedestrian routes and schemes that deliver improved Active Travel options.

The CRSTS CATP is the programme that helps Wirral Council implement some of the most comprehensive highway schemes in the borough, such as the introduction of widespread 20mph speed limits, which is again on the programme for 2024/25 as the council looks to implement phases 3 and 4 of that scheme.

Another project scheduled on this year’s proposed programme are works to improve the safety of all road users at the Spital Crossroads, a junction linking Church Road, Poulton Road and Spital Road in Clatterbridge ward.

The design for this scheme was funded in last year’s CRSTS CATP and this year £550,000 will be invested in carrying out the works to improve safety at this busy junction, which has been the scene of a number of serious road traffic incidents in recent years.

In December 2020, Thomas Willemsen, who was 12 at the time, was crossing from one side of Spital Road to the other, close to the Three Stags pub, to meet a friend on his way to school when a Ford Fiesta knocked him to the ground.

At the time, a spokesperson for Wirral Council said: "The council is working with Merseyside Police in relation to this incident and will be undertaking a review of road safety at this busy junction."

Residents and elected members have since petitioned for improvements at this junction in recent years and CRSTS CATP funding is being invested to make this happen.