Road safety at Ninewells Drive #dundeewestend

A resident recently wrote to me to advise :

“My children attend the Busy Bees nursery by Ninewells Hospital and are dropped off and picked up on foot most days.

However, this is a daily struggle, as there is no pedestrian crossing that allows safe crossing of Ninewells Drive into Thomas Wise Place.

At busy times, we often stand by the side of the road for 5-10 minutes whilst holding on to small people!

This is clearly an unsafe situation and I worry it is only a matter of time before it goes wrong.

And I’m certainly not alone in this issue, many other parents and people working on Thomas Wise Place share this frustration on a daily basis.”

This is a very good point as Ninewells Drive – the main entrance road into the hospital from Ninewells Avenue – can be extremely busy.

The road is part of the NHS Tayside estate but I sought the views of the City Council’s Head of Sustainable Transport & Roads who gave me the following very useful feedback :

“You are correct that Ninewells Drive and Thomas Wise Place form part of the NHS estate.

Dundee City Council and NHS Tayside have been liaising on potential active travel improvements within the estate, and have identified the crossing location.

Dundee City Council is planning to bid for external funding in the summer (when Sustrans reopen the Places for Everyone fund to applications) to progress the design phase of an active travel improvement project at Ninewells estate.

We will brief you on the outcome of the funding application when confirmed.

Should funding be secured for the design phase, NHS Tayside and Dundee City Council will have opportunity to bid for funding from Sustrans for the construction of the works.

This would require match funding contribution from Dundee City Council / NHS Tayside and a review of allocation requirements would be held after completion of the design phase once project estimates are refined.”

I will, of course, keep residents updated.