Here's how some of the HS2 money will be spent in and around Southam, Leamington and Kenilworth

A string of road safety features totalling around £125,000 are to be introduced in Southam with the money coming from HS2.

Other areas will have casualty reduction schemes paid for from the second round of HS2 Road Safety Fund payments and cash will also be forthcoming to pay for various items including village gateway signing, feasibility studies and a section of the cycle network linking Kenilworth to Warwick University and Coventry.

Nearly £600,000 has been earmarked in total, drawn down from the £8.045m made available to Warwickshire County Council to be spent on road safety in locations closely associated with the route of the railway.

Analysis, funded from an earlier HS2 RSF round of spending, identified a number of places where a relatively small amount of funding could result in a significant improvement in accident and casualty numbers.

Southam will see the largest chunk of cash with a new 20mph speed limit, school safety zone and refreshed road markings on sections of Welsh Road and the introduction of a 40mph speed limit as a buffer zone further along the same stretch of road linking the town to Priors Marston.

Another scheme will see new signing, street lighting and resurfacing on Leamington’s Sandy Lane roundabout at a cost of £50,000 and junction warning signs at the Windy Arbour/Leyes Lane intersection in Kenilworth.

The application for funds was approved by Cllr Wallace Redford (Con, Cubbington and Leek Wootton), the county council’s portfolio holder for transport and planning this week.

A report accompanying his announcement explained that funding will be available until 2026 and that projects should ‘leave a legacy of road safety improvements’.

It added: “It has become apparent during this first stage of the construction phase of the HS2 project, that a massive impact on local communities is being felt. Not least when road closures and other traffic management diverts traffic through communities. Communities are concerned about traffic volumes and in some cases speed of traffic through residential areas.”

Long Itchington, Bascote, Hunningham, Offchurch and Cubbington will all receive funding for village enhancement schemes while £100,000 will go towards the design and construction of the stretch of cycleway.