A Brighton councillor has criticised a delay in spending money on a pedestrian crossing outside a school even though funds are available.
Conservative leader Alistair McNair said that he wanted to see progress on a pedestrian crossing in Winfield Avenue – outside Patcham High School.
More than £18,000 in “developer contributions” had been set aside for road safety measures by Brighton and Hove City Council, Councillor McNair said.
The money was a contribution to road safety from Patcham High School when it was granted planning permission for a 3G sports pitch.
He said that he and his fellow Patcham and Hollingbury Conservative councillors Anne Meadows and Carol Theobald had got signs urging drivers to slow down along the road.
But until recently they were not sure whether there was any more money to fund road safety measures.
He said that they were frustrated to find that there was a “bottleneck” between allocating funds from the council’s team that handles developer’s contributions – also known as “section 106” payments – to transport projects and the department installing road crossings.
Councillor McNair said: “Winfield Avenue has a lot of parents crossing with their children going to school – and it’s a known hotspot for speeding.
“We got the residents to help and go to the council to check if a pedestrian crossing was possible and now it’s 24th on a list of about 70.
“There’s one team allocating funds, yet it hasn’t got the capacity. We have £18,014 we cannot spend because of a bottleneck in the system.
“We spent a long time trying to get this together. What’s the point in having section 106 money if we might never get into the top ten.”
Councillor McNair said that he planned to ask questions about the problem at a meeting of the full council on Thursday 20 July.
The council said: “We are reviewing all section 106 funds to develop a planned approach to what schemes might be delivered this year – and the Winfield Avenue site will be included.
“Once this review is complete, a full picture of what schemes need to be delivered will be known and then carried out by council contractors. We aim to keep residents informed of all progress.”
