Fire engines 'on cycle lane to miss gyratory traffic'

Vehicles with blue lights have been using the cycle lane, the committee heard

Lives and property are being put "at risk" by a floating bus stop in Shrewsbury, a meeting has heard.

A Shropshire Council committee has agreed to launch a "rapid task and finish group" to delve into the finer details of what happened, what went wrong, and produce a report to go to Shropshire Council's cabinet in December.

The chairman of the Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority told a meeting scrutinising the work carried out near the railway station that fire engines have been "using the cycle lane" to get away from jams caused.

"It is putting lives and property at risk and a solution needs to be found," said Councillor David Minnery.

He told Shropshire Council's economy and environment overview and scrutiny committee that fire engines were finding the situation "untenable".

"We are very disappointed at the lack of consultation on this," he added.

The committee heard there was a video on social media showing a fire engine "embedded in traffic" and "unable to proceed".

The councillor said he had a recent conversation with the fire chief who told him that "he is still seriously concerned".

"We have had instances where people and property have been put at risk," Mr Minnery said.

The committee was told that vehicles with blue lights have been using the cycle lane to get through.

Mr Minnery said that this itself was not "not a solution" and could be a risk to cyclists who are hard of hearing or wearing headphones.

"It is totally unacceptable," he added.

The committee discussed a wide range of issues associated with the new look gyratory and problems with traffic and how the contract had been awarded and managed - and councillors said they want to see the emergency services included in a safety review.

'Never known the traffic as bad'

The committee was also told that there had been "glitches" with new high-tech lights which have needed fixing.

A councillor wanted to see a change of the sequencing of traffic lights at the Chester Street-Smithfield Road junction. A council officer told him that this could be looked at.

Council leader Heather Kidd said: "I have never known the traffic as bad as it was on Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was far worse than I have ever seen it. In the early morning it was horrendous.

"It has been taking me one hour and 10 minutes to do a trip supposed to be 40 minutes."

She added that she wanted the council to work with train operator Transport for Wales to sort out issues at the car park at the front of the railway station.

"People cannot get out of the car park," she said. "On one occasion a lady got out of her car and was directing the traffic."

Committee chairman Councillor Ed Potter said he wanted to see a "safety review" carried out as soon as possible.

Councillors also want to see how the work was procured and how the contract is managed.

Mr Potter said their "duty is to tackle this and to get a grip on this as best we can.

"It will make a change for Shropshire Council to be actually getting on with the job."

He added that he wanted to make sure that the issues identified did "not happen again".

The council's cabinet is set to get an update at a meeting next week.

Ms Kidd added that she was "hoping that the lessons learned can be applied to other schemes that are taking place now."