Bradford Council criticised over 'silly' kerb plan (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford Council criticised over 'silly' kerb plan

9:00am Wednesday 5th December 2012 in News By Dolores Cowburn, Bradford Chief Reporter

A bemused plumber has criticised Bradford Council for installing a “silly plastic kerb” randomly on a busy road which he fears will lead to accidents when it snows.

Brian Heaton, of G Jackson Plumbers, Brownroyd Hill Road, Wibsey, said officials told him on Friday the kerb was being installed over the weekend. The £6,000 kerb was installed to cope with the volume of pupils from Grange School which has more than 1,850 students and follows calls to Bradford Council from concerned neighbours and residents.

Mr Heaton arrived at work on Monday and found the 100-yard long plastic kerb at the corner of the road.

He said: “If you imagine a road surface and someone has bolted a type of kerb to the road in the middle of nowhere and it is the stupidest thing I have ever seen in my life and for a public footpath it is crazy.

“People don’t walk on that part anyway and when it snows that kerb will get lost in the snow, then if a car hits it I don’t know what will happen.

“It is like someone has put a concrete block in the road and they haven’t even tapered it down to the road.”

Darren Badrock, principal engineer for Bradford Council’s Highways Service, said: “We have installed this plastic kerb to create a new footpath, as this is a main route for pupils walking to Grange School.

“It makes the route safer, as previously there was no footpath on one side of Brownroyd Hill and now pupils have a safer alternative to crossing St Enoch's Road.

“This new kerbing has a black and white reflective edge which will make it clearly visible to drivers.

“The plastic structure is far quicker, more environmentally friendly and cost effective to put up than a traditional kerbing, which would have required a crew to dig trenches, check drainage and lay concrete before the kerbing could be installed.”

Wibsey Councillor Ralph Berry (Lab) said that the kerb was part of a scheme to ease the heavy traffic, adding: “The scheme resulted from concerns raised by residents about the impact of traffic from the school as it is a very congested spot.”