In 2019, Councillor Angela McInerney claimed that in order for any road within the borough to get Police camera warning / speed awareness signs installed that the criteria for each were as follows: The road should be a designated Police Enforcement Area which had to have a static camera sited on the road. Incorrect .The fact that speed enforcement is carried out by Police mobile traffic vehicles or PCSOs hand held devices does not meet the required criteria. Incorrect

Councillor McInerney stated that our requests for this signage for Moorfield Road had been refused, after being fully investigated by the relevant department. However, members of the action group located speed awareness signs on Birchfield Road, which is not designated a Police Enforcement Area and does not have a static speed camera sited on the road. When challenged with the evidence of these same signs on Birchfield Road, she claimed that it wasn’t in her ward, which was totally irrelevant but also completely contradicted the criteria she had stated was required for the location of this signage.

She also claimed that by installing this specific signage, it could be seen by some as giving preferential treatment for residents of Moorfield Road, over other similar roads within Widnes. So could it be said that Birchfield Road had been given preferential treatment for whatever reason? Birchfield Road has two of the blue combined 30mph/camera rectangular signs that we requested to be sited on Moorfield Road splitter islands in our emails. There are also has two different types of other Police camera warning signs on Birchfield Road, yet there is no static camera  at this location.

Despite having been told that we could not have any Police camera warning / speed awareness signs installed on Moorfield Road, we lobbied HBC once again and after one of our members submitted a corporate complaint, HBC agreed to install 5 signs along Moorfield Road. On Tuesday 18th February, residents were amazed to find that the promised speed signage had at last been installed on Moorfield Road during the day. Whilst we do appreciate the fact that they have finally been installed, we are extremely disappointed that the views expressed by the action group and other local residents regarding the most suitable location for the signage, have been ignored yet again by representatives of Halton Borough Council!

We had requested on a number of occasions to both the Council Leader Rob Polhill and our local councillors that the two blue combined 30pmh/camera signs should be placed on the lamp posts on the splitter islands at the junction of Camberwell Park Road. We have had no input with regards to other relevant speed signage and our only request was in relation to the above two signs. This junction is well known for collisions and near misses and would be the most prominent position for siting the two blue combined 30pmh/camera signs. As the speed of traffic affect both sides of the railway bridge, by placing these two signs facing either way in this prominent position in view  of oncoming traffic which would alert both northbound and southbound drivers of the 30 mph limit and to the fact that Cheshire Police might be carrying out speed enforcement. However, once again our request has been completely ignored by the person/people who make these decisions on our behalf. These are the same people who think there is not an ongoing road safety issue on Moorfield Road, even using data which is over 5 years old to assess the current situation. Obviously they feel that the numerous large scale housing developments they sanctioned on Warrington Road does not bring increased traffic levels onto Moorfield Road.

Indeed, one of these signs (image attached) has been fixed in a position in which it can hardly be seen from the road by approaching drivers and is partly covered by trees from the BYK factory. It is winter now and the sign can hardly be seen, so by summer it will become completely obscured by the tree growth. It is as though someone has thought where shall we put this and it has just been thrown up anywhere, but not where it is required.

Surely, a common sense approach should have been taken when deciding the location of each sign, to maximise the effectiveness of the warning. Yet again, this is another failure from representatives of Halton Borough Council to listen to the views of the residents of Moorfield Road. We have respectfully requested that they consider our initial straight forward request to relocate the two blue rectangular 30mph/camera signs onto each of the splitter islands. Up until this moment in time no representative of Halton Borough Council has stated that there would be an issue with our initial request. We have asked that if for whatever reason this cannot be done, the hidden blue combined 30pmh/camera sign should be moved from its current useless position into a more visible location.

This situation does not bode well with regards to our request for further suitable measures to be implemented to address the serious road safety issues of Moorfield Road. Will we ever reach the stage where representatives of Halton Borough Council actually meet local residents to take their views on board and enter constructive dialogue?