SPEED reduction and traffic safety schemes in Wem have been boosted by the town's inclusion in receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding from Shropshire Council.

A grant of £140,000 has been approved for speed reduction or safety schemes in Ellesmere, Highley and Wem as part of a £1.5 million boost to highways schemes across Shropshire.

One of the biggest schemes to have been given approval is a £225,000 HGV management project and highways safety improvements in Ruyton-XI-Towns, near Oswestry.

Council officials believe the funding for this project may go a long way to satisfying ongoing safety concerns around the lorries using the village to avoid the A5.

Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for communities, place planning and regulatory services, was delighted with the funding.

He said: "We are absolutely thrilled to be able to approve more than a million pound of funding towards vital highways schemes the length and breadth of Shropshire.

“Some really important schemes have been funded here by money that has come from developers via the Community Infrastructure Levy, and supports some of the issues that development has caused in our towns and villages.

“These are schemes which will meet the demand from where housing developments have taken place. These schemes are just from the highways section of funding applications that have been submitted for this year, and the schemes have been identified from our communities in our local Place Plans.

“We are really focussed on making our roads safer and greener, and these schemes will help with that. This is a further example of us listening to communities about what they want to happen in their area.

“To approve six cycle schemes in Shrewsbury alone is a major step towards what we are hoping to achieve. We had so many worthy schemes put forward and it is great to be able to give so many approvals.”

Steve Davenport, who represents St Martins and is Cabinet member for Highways, added: "I’m really pleased we can utilise funding from housing development to support key improvement in our towns and villages.

"I’m sure over time that this scheme will improve all aspects of our communities.”