Councillor Mike Flower

A thousand road signs are to be taken down in a south Wales county because they are considered “unnecessary”.
Caerphilly council has pledged to take down the signs as part of a declutter of its roads.

By the end of March, roads particularly in rural communities and around historic locations such as Caerphilly Castle, will have some signs removed.

Last year, the RAC Foundation said too many road signs could cause accidents because of an overload of information.

A ‘clutter audit’ has been carried out by Caerphilly council which has identified 1,000 road signs which are not necessary and work is underway to begin removing them.

A spokesman for the council said, the aim was not to endanger road users by taking down signs, but to remove those which are not needed.

Caerphilly council’s director of the environment, Anthony O’Sullivan said: “The council recognises the need to address this issue and has set itself an ambitious target to remove a large swathe of these signs.

“Taking this action will help improve highway safety as well as enhancing the visual amenity of the area.”

This issue has been raised with me by the office of the PTA Chairman, Councillor Gary Clarke. Although as you say TWM has deregistered this service from 11 November I am pleased to be able to confirm that following dialogue with other operators about a possible new operator, A to Z Travel has recently agreed to take on this service (on a commercial basis) from this date. The timetable will be very similar to that currently run by TWM - let me know if you would like a copy.

Both A to Z and TWM have been working closely with Centro to ensure that the 991 can run from a stand within St Paul’s Bus Station – this has involved TWM agreeing to a number of minor stand changes within the bus station to other services in order to be able to accommodate the new A to Z service. I trust you will be happy with the outcome.

As you may know issues such as this are discussed at meetings of the Walsall Transport Users Forum – a public meeting arranged by the Passenger Transport Authority which is held (in Walsall) every few months. The next such meeting is on Tuesday 16 October at the Council House, starting at 6pm. Please let me know if you require any further information about these meetings.

I tried to get through to you on the phone over the last couple of days but I think we keep missing each other.

I just wanted to register my deep disappointment in hearing the news that the 991 bus service is to cease running as of the 11th November this year. Direct public transport between Lichfield and Walsall along the A461 route is vitally important to the people of my area and in the absence of a rail route - that leaves the 991.

The big losers of this are going to be the people of Sandhills and Shire Oak who will now have to walk down to Walsall Wood. This a big hill and totally unacceptable for older people and disabled. At the top of Shire Oak we have a Residential Care Home who will be deeply affected and staff, visitors and residents will no longer be able to have access to public transport. There are also a number of people in homes and houses there who rely on this service to get around. Obviously the Ring and Ride will not cover transport into or from Staffordshire or help the more able bodied who use the route in my ward. How will people be able to get into Lichfield or Walsall? What will happen to Lichfield school and college children who use the route to Walsall and vice versa?

It is really difficult to accept that yesterday the Government claim public transport funding has risen by 36% over the past 5 years and yet in my ward we are seeing cuts. I understand that TWM is a commercial venture and needs to run viable routes. However this route is an important public service to the people of Shire Oak and Sandhills. I hope that you will consider maintaining the service or extending the life of the service until the public transport needs of the residents are met. Otherwise this is going to affect the quality of life of real people and put jobs at risk at the care home.

I am copying this to my ward colleagues, Centro-WMPTA colleagues and the MPs for Aldridge Brownhills and Lichfield for their information.

Best wishes

Mike