COUNCILLORS put the brakes on plans new homes in Upper Gornal on a road branded one of Dudley's most dangerous.

Members of Dudley's development control committee voted to defer a decision on an application for 14 new properties on a site off Vale Street.

Council officers recommended approval of the plan however fears of increased traffic caused by the development prompted councilors to ask for further reports before they could reach a conclusion.

Gornal ward cllr Stuart Turner told the meeting, on May 13: “If there’s a more dangerous road in Dudley borough, I’d like to see it; it’s a real problem, 30 cars up and down that road every day is a real concern.

“We’ll have more and more traffic on this very dangerous stretch of road, I don’t think we should wave this plan through without looking to see what we can do with Vale Street. It’s a very dangerous road.

“There’s an opportunity here to do something about the road. At the moment speed humps in the road come too late if you come from Sedgley to Gornal.

He added: “It’s the one downside to this whole plan. It would be negligent of the committee to just wave this plan through without looking at this. Someone has been killed on this road – something needs to be done.

“We’re not comfortable with the fact that this is an unsafe road that’s going to be made worse by this development.”

Committee chairman, cllr Rachel Harris, said: “We can’t expect the developer to mitigate a problem that’s all ready there, it would be unreasonable.”

She deferred the plan for additional reports on road safety issues surrounding the site to be prepared.