SOME £5 million has been earmarked for continual work to relieve road congestion.

The county council has proposed £5 million for this year’s draft budget on top of £6.6 million awarded by the Department for Transport to relieve congestion in 2017.

Councillor Alan Amos, county council cabinet member for highways, said.: “Congestion is a priority for the county council because we know it’s important for the county’s residents.

“This additional money will help us to deliver bigger, better schemes to relieve congestion across the county as well as allowing us to add a few more improvement hot spots to the list.” In Worcester, some of the funding to relieve congestion previously announced has already been used to improve the Sidbury Junction and the Croft Road crossing neat to the Hive.

The congested crossing near the Hive which has been previously dubbed “Worcester’s most hated” had previously seen around 2,000 pedestrians and 200 cyclists cross on an average day and with no signals, drivers often fell victim to long and frequent interruptions in both direction.

There is now a pedestrian signal crossing in place.

These improvements include the introduction of new technology to ensure more time is given to the priority flow of traffic, therefore reducing congestion.

Sites outside of the city also include improvements at Queen Street (Droitwich), Worcester Road (Kidderminster), Icknield Street Drive (Redditch) and Evesham Road (Astwood Bank). In addition, over half of the £6.6 million awarded by the Department for Transport is being used to improve a number of walking and cycling routes across Bromsgrove. In 2019, every driver in the county faced an average delay of almost 30 seconds per mile.

However, the average for Worcestershire is far below the national average of 47.3 seconds per vehicle per mile.