EXCLUSIVE By John Elworthy CASH earmarked for the stalled Wisbech Market Place regeneration is to be switched to solve problems at the North Brink/Chapel Road junction. County councillors have agreed that �40,000 is spent immediately and another �60,000

EXCLUSIVE

By John Elworthy

CASH earmarked for the stalled Wisbech Market Place regeneration is to be switched to solve problems at the North Brink/Chapel Road junction.

County councillors have agreed that �40,000 is spent immediately and another �60,000 in coming months to install signals at the junction.

Later plans could see a pedestrian crossing installed there and a cycle way put in to improve safety for school children and local residents.

John Richards, the county council's area traffic manager, said the authority recognised the need to try and do something at the junction.

Wisbech Grammar School, subject to criticism in recent issues of the Wisbech Standard after parents dropped off children in the middle of the road, has provisionally agreed to contribute to the cost.

The school, says Mr Richards, may help with a lump sum of up to �5,000 to fund the improvements.

He assured motorists that signalling may lead to waiting on conflicting approaches "but you shouldn't get an imbalance and a big queue on one leg".

Thomas Emmett, a local traffic engineer for the council, told one complainant that he hoped the improvements would "influence the activities of highway users and parents alike for the better, creating an overall much safer environment for all".

Mr Emmett says with regard to parking enforcement, in Fenland this remained the remit of the police although a move to local authority enforcement was being considered.

"I would like to make it quite clear that only the police are responsible for parking enforcement in Wisbech at the present time," he said.

Mr Emmett said both the county council and the grammar school had been concerned for some time about peak vehicle movements and this remained an ongoing priority concern for all.