New 'centre of excellence' to train people in traffic signal design in West Yorkshire

In 2018, Councils across West Yorkshire agreed to join forces to develop an Urban Traffic Management Centre.

The new service would work to upgrade the areas traffic lights and improve the computer systems that operate those lights.

But at a meeting of Bradford Council’s Executive in the New Year, Council bosses will be told that there are “concerns” over the number of qualified staff in the area to support these changes.

A report into the progress of the scheme says there are 27 staff employed across the region to deal with traffic lights. Of these the average age is 50 and 70 per cent of staff are over the age of 48.

It adds: “Consequently, it was identified that staff shortages would be exacerbated in the near future as staff retire, therefore training and development of younger engineers into this field was seen as critical over the next decade.”

A scheme run by Leeds City Council will attempt to train a new generation of traffic light engineers, and Bradford Council’s Executive will be asked to support this programme.

The report adds: “This will ensure that we are able to offer high quality training for urban traffic control staff in West Yorkshire and that the city region remains at the forefront of exploiting and adopting the latest changes in new and emerging traffic management technologies.”

Chris Young, Local Democracy Reporting Service

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