Residents living on Spies Lane in Halesowen have written to council chiefs expressing concern over the increasing volume of accidents happening outside their front doors.

The road, a main thoroughfare between the Black Country and Birmingham, has seen an increasing number of closures by Police in the last two months.

Sue Jones, who's lived in her property for almost 20 years, feels that recent alterations to the carriageway have contributed to the problem. She said:

"Spies Lane has always been a busy road, especially at peak times when a number of buses travel along it and a large quantity of work traffic use it as a way to avoid the gridlocked Hagley Road. Cars parking near junctions is clearly a problem.

"There have been changes implemented to stop people parking in certain areas and causing traffic flow issues, but this has just shifted the situation higher up the road. There's been several fairly serious accidents in the last couple of months and something needs to be done before any more happen"

Dudley Council have said that they are aware of the continuing issues and are responding to recommendations by the police. Cllr Karen Shakespeare, cabinet member responsible for highways, said:

“We work really hard to reduce the number of accidents across the borough. In this case, parking restrictions were put in place to improve junction safety in Spies Lane. Speed reduction signs have also been included along the same stretch of road. We review the benefits of any system we put in place and we will discuss this site with partner agencies to see if anything needs to be done to improve safety further.

“Following serious incidents the police carry out investigations and then feedback on their findings and recommendations which would then need to be included in any safety scheme.”