Blackspot work finally underway (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Blackspot work finally underway

The site of the fatal accident where work is now underway to repair traffic lightsWORK has started to repair traffic lights at a spot where a motorcyclist died.

Swindon Council admitted earlier this month that the lights at the junction of Corporation Street and Station Road had not been working for up to a year.

The work comes three weeks after Trevor Gibbs died at the spot.

And a campaigner who asked the council to fix the lights before the tragic accident is relieved work has finally started.

Safety improvements at the junction will include new traffic lights, street lighting and a pedestrian crossing.

Residents close to the spot said the junction had been "an accident waiting to happen".

Jon Pierce, 30, a delivery driver, who lives in Station Road, was angry nothing was done sooner to prevent the accident.

He wrote to Swindon Council on June 27 asking them to fix the traffic lights.

"I am relieved that they have finally started work," he said.

"It's too late to prevent what happened but at least it is a positive thing."

But he thinks the council should have acted faster.

"I can't understand why it's taken the council so long to start the work, the lights have been out for more than a year," said Mr Pierce.

"I would have thought that any little problem would have been sorted out straight away to prevent accidents."

He added: "I'm not really sure what the work will be but anything to make the junction safer is positive."

Mr Gibbs, who lived in Park South, died on August 1 after his Kawasaki ZX 12R motorbike collided with a car at the Whitehouse bridge, by the junction of Station Road and Corporation Street. He was on his way to see Rachael Gittings his partner of nearly 11 years.

The 38-year-old was sad but relieved when she heard the work had started.

"The lights have been out for so long, it's about time they were back on," she said.

"I'm just upset to hear about it," she added.

Matt Jackson, a student, from Salisbury drove past the junction yesterday morning.

"There were about 10 people working on the site," said the 24-year-old.

"I had to take a slightly different route but I was not held up too much."

Work is expected to last six weeks.

Council spokesman, Richard Freeman, said: "The work started on Monday on the improvement of the junction of Corporation Street and Station Road.

"The work will include kerb re-alignments, provision of pedestrian crossing facilities, street lighting and traffic signals.

"The work will last for approximately six weeks.

"In addition, as part of the council's road maintenance programme, carriageway and footway resurfacing will follow the junction improvement work on part of Corporation Street and Station Road.

"There will be some disruption to traffic flow and drivers are asked to consider an alternative route whilst the work is in progress."

Lyndsay Scanlan