Improvements will be carried out to several Keighley roads in a bid to cut speeds and improve safety.

Streets in Highfield, Parkwood, Ingrow, Denholme and central Keighley are included in the council's £640,000 district-wide package. Bradford councillors meeting next Wednesday are expected to approve the list of 31 casualty reduction schemes.

They include:

pedestrian refuges and skid-resistant surfacing on North Street, where there have been 70 accidents in five years

traffic calming on the A629 Main Road through Denholme, where there have been 50 accidents

road markings and new signs in Parkwood Street (21 accidents) and waiting restrictions and signs on Devonshire Street and Suresnes Street (12 accidents)

priority signs and traffic calming in Haincliffe Road and Hainworth Road, between Woodhouse and Ingrow, where there have been 14 accidents.

Keighley Area Panel, the local arm of Bradford council, is providing half the funding for the Hainworth Wood Road, Denholmeand Parkwood Street schemes. The government is giving the £640,000 to reflect the council's success with previous schemes in reducing the number of people killed or hurt.

Highways chairman Cllr Phil Thornton says: "These projects offer real value for money and show our commitment to reducing the number of accidents. Since the programme began seven years ago more than 1,000 people have been saved from injury in the district."

Meanwhile, residents look set to win their battle against speeding motorists on a narrow hillside road. Councillors are expected to approve safety measures on the dangerous bend outside 20 Glen Lee Lane.

Marian Shepherd and her neighbours handed a 40-signature petition to Keighley Police last autumn calling for road-safety improvements. Mrs Sheppard claimed her garden wall was damaged four times last year when drivers lost control while speeding downhill.

The petition will be discussed by Bradford council's highways sub-committee on Wednesday. They are likely to approve chevron signs to warn drivers of the approaching bend and 'slow' road markings.

The work would be added to the list of projects awaiting funding from the council's Traffic Revenue Budget for 1998/99.

A further request for traffic calming measures on Glen Lee Lane will be forwarded to Keighley Area Panel.

Mrs Sheppard says residents are frightened whenever they heard a car coming down the road. "You are waiting for the next accident to happen," she says.

Cllr Thornton says: "There is a great deal of demand for local traffic management schemes and we can only carry out a certain number each year within a limited budget."

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