For immediate release

After recent repeat accidents on the A6135 at Hood Hill bend, Nr Harley  last week, the A6135 Accident Reduction Group have written to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State from the Department of Transport Mr. Paul Clark MP to visit the accident site at Hood Hill.

If the Minister is kind enough to accept the invitation offered by the local A6135 action group he will be able to make his own assessment of the multiple accident site at Hood Hill. He will then be in a position to provide the action group with some positive feedback and solutions on how to improve the safety of the A6135.

Mr. Clark may also be able answer our queries why the Rule 43 recommendations made by HM Coroner in the Inquest in May 2009 have not been completed by the local authority. Mr. Clark is the DFT Minister responsible for Road Safety in the UK.

The Group

Wentworth and Harley Parish Council (WPC) and Tankersley Parish Council (TPC) along with local residents from Harley formed the A6135 Accident Reduction Group on the 22nd September 2008. The A6135, Sheffield Road between Hood Hill and Hoyland Common has seen 15 fatalities from road accidents in the past 30 years alone (including pedestrians). Floods have also been instrumental in at least one local residents death (her home was flood twice in a two week period). Locals all know the road as ‘The Turnpike’ which means ‘old toll road’. Unfortunately its modern classification is a ‘Rural Single Carriageway’. This ‘Turnpike’ carries a large volume of traffic everyday to various destinations in South Yorkshire. The new 50mph limit is still too fast.  Cars regularly lose control on the bend. Three teenagers were killed in May 2008,  were along the latest in a long history of fatalities and serious injuries at the Hood Hill bend at the junction of ‘Old Coach Road’-another name showing the age of this road system.

We will have achieved our objectives  when :

"There is a significant and sustained reduction of severity and number of accidents on the A6135 between Chapeltown and Hoyland."

A6135 Accident Reduction Group Secretary

2 Wentworth Station Hoyland

Nr. Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S74 0ED

Thank you for your support, your voice really does count!