New £10 million action plan to improve safety on A47 at Peterborough
New action is being planned to improve safety on an accident blackspot on the A47 at Peterborough.
A campaign group called A47 Safety Improvement Group has been set up to lobby for special works to enhance safety along the A47 between the villages of Wansford and Sutton – one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the region.
The move comes shortly after the Department for Transport announced it was axing a proposed £100 million A47 upgrade that had been seven years in the planning.
It has been convened by North West Cambridgeshire MP Sam Carling with local parish councils and other representatives and had it initial meeting last month.
He said: “I’ve made it clear that something needs to be done to make this stretch of the A47 safer - and I’m glad to be bringing partners together to get a better plan in place.
There’s a real willingness locally to get this right, and I’m grateful to local partners for coming to the table to help make that happen.
People have waited long enough. We now have a chance to deliver real, practical safety improvements - and I’m determined we make the most of it.”
Sutton parish Councillor Mick Grange, who also moved to create the safety group, said: “Cancelling the A47 upgrade left us in limbo with a very dangerous stretch of road.
“But it is important that works are still carried out to improve safety on this stretch of the A47.
He said it was reckoned that there are about two accidents a week on this part of the A47 and about one death every year.
The group has a list of 10 key works it wants to see carried out including average speed cameras, safer junction layouts, overtaking restrictions and speed reductions, visibility improvements and rumble strips, lay-by closures and redesigns, better infrastructure for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders.
Cllr Grange said: "I was surprised the upgrade scheme was cancelled because the project had progressed so far and some £10 million to £20 million had already been spent on it.
"It was very disappointing because of all the work we had put into it.
"But cancelling the A47 upgrade left us in limbo with a very dangerous stretch of road.
“We do need to do something to improve safety on that stretch of road.”
“We think it will cost £10 million to do all the things that need to be done.
He said: “Our ideas seem to have been received positively which is a step in the right direction."
A public consultation is expected later this year to gather views from residents in order to inform an overall proposal to be put to Government.
The creation of the action group follows comments from North West Cambridgeshire MP Sam Carling that people wanted investment for this stretch of the A47 but investment that was ‘properly thought through, deliverable, and shaped by local input.’
He said the spending figures for the now scrapped scheme, which would have seen one and a half miles of road at the accident blackspot between Wansford and Sutton converted from single to a dual carriageway, had ‘never really stacked up’.