A COUNCILLOR has said roads in Merthyr Tydfil are “like the wild west” and that the council needs to take a look at road safety.
Speaking at a recent neighbourhood services, countryside, and planning scrutiny committee Councillor Geraint Thomas said they might need to look at some of the 20mph roads reverting to 30mph roads and the general safety on Merthyr Tydfil’s roads.
He mentioned a recent accident in Brecon Road where a car had toppled over in a 20mph zone.
Cllr Thomas said: “I think we need to have a look at how safe our roads are because I don’t think they are at this moment in time.”
Cllr Clive Jones said he understood that the accident in Brecon Road was a police chase.
He said there’s a bollard island on the road and concrete which sticks out either side and added: “How these three youngsters survived after hitting that I’ll never know.”
He asked: “What are you going to do about that in a 20mph area in the early hours of the morning? I don’t know.”
Cllr Thomas suggested they get the police in to talk about how they and the highways team work together to make roads safer.
He mentioned cars that are parked on the pavements all night and said it is a two-way road so it comes to the point where only one car can go at a time.
Cllr Jones also mentioned garages with cars parked on the pavement blocking off pedestrians and added: “You add that to the parked cars then on either side and you’ve got a bit of a problem.”
On the 20mph consultation he said only 57 people in Merthyr Tydfil wrote in to ask for roads to be changed from 20mph back to 30mph, and two were the same person, despite a petition against the changes being signed by thousands and thousands.
He said there must be a system for councils in Wales to decide which ones go from 20mph to 30mph and this must be due quite soon for Merthyr Tydfil.
Cllr Jones said in Brecon Road in the daytime there are people driving up and down there “as if they’ve got no regard for the 20mph at all”.
Cllr Thomas said there’d been another car on its roof up by the top gates of the park.
He said: “It’s like the wild west. It’s like the wild west on the roads.”
Cllr David Hughes said a lot of the 57 requests for a speed change were for the road from Treharris up to Troedyrhiw.
He asked if there was some other way they could let people know about the consultation because it had only been put on the council website.
