MORE than £58,000 is being spent to improve safety at an accident blackspot in Radcliffe.

The Spring Lane Urban Safety Scheme will be put into action later this year, and continue into 1998, after Bury's Traffic and engineering sub-committee gave the project the green light.

The targeted area is roughly bounded by Barlow Street, Church Street West and Spring Lane.

Between 1993 and 1995 there were 14 road accidents in the Spring Lane area, including two fatal incidents. Six of the accidents involved pedestrians, four of which were children.

Proposed measures aim to slow-down traffic to make the area safer for vulnerable road users, especially pedal cyclists and pedestrians, and to deter traffic from using Bridgefield Street and Barlow Street as a short cut.

Traffic calming measures will include a series of road humps, pedestrian refuges and parking bays, which aim to slow the traffic flow through the busy area.

A planned pedestrian refuge and ghost island at the Spring Lane and Bridgefield Street junction, along with a right turning lane, have been omitted from the plans, following objections from local residents

Funding for the scheme will come from the council's rolling programme of capital local safety schemes.

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