BOSSES at Bolton Council are to spend £2 million making the borough's roads and streets safer.

In its budget proposals — which are set to be ratified at tonight’s council meeting — the authority has vowed to spend £1 million on improved street lighting and a further £1 million repairing and providing new flashing road speed warnings.

The money has been allocated from the £5.5 million that the ruling Labour group is budgeting towards one-off capital projects throughout the year, with other monies going towards 3G sports pitches and primary school breakfast clubs.

The council is already mid-way through its £10 plan to switch 26,000 street lights across Bolton to energy efficient LED lighting and the £1 million budget allocation will see more of these lights put in place in areas where people have requested them to be.

Cllr Nick Peel, the council’s lead for the environment, said: “This is about community safety and the money will be spent on putting lights in crime blackspots that have been highlighted to us by members of the community.

“We have received lots of requests and haven’t had any money to do this since the cuts began in 2010 so we are pleased to be able to help now.

“We will look at all the information provided by the public and decide where best to put them — we hope it will make people feel safer as they make their way around Bolton.”

The million pound investment in flashing road signs forms part of the council’s policy to bring down the number of road accidents in the borough.

Work is already underway to bring in 20 mph limits in all residential areas in Bolton — with a number of zones already created.

Cllr Peel explained that the capital funding will be spent on replacing all of the flashing road signs around the town.

He said: “The signs we do have are about 10 years old and the technology has moved on in that time.

“We want to replace all of them because they really do have an effect on speeding cars.

“We will be putting some outside schools with specific messages targeted at drivers in those areas.”

He added: “We have already seen the number of accidents falling in Bolton and we hope that this will continue to make our roads as soon as possible.”