Star comment: Time to upgrade A5 route

The summer has seen a number of terrible accidents on Shropshire's roads, causing death and injury.

And as road improvements such as proposals to make the A5 a dual carriageway are coming up against financial considerations, we can also note that road accidents are financially expensive, and that a fatal accident typically costs the public purse over £1 million.

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson is again taking up the case for making the A5 a dual carriageway, and is to meet transport minister Patrick McLoughlin.

You do not have to be a fly on the wall to imagine what the response is likely to be. Sorry, old chap, but we don't have the money.

The issue is hardly new. Proposals to improve the A5 between Shrewsbury and Oswestry have been bandied around for years and if it did not happen in the good times, relatively speaking, then Mr Paterson is facing an uphill task in these times of financial straits.

That is not to say he does not have some cards to play. The A5 is the major route to North Wales and a key piece of national infrastructure. It is a road which is taking on the role of a motorway. It is, Mr Paterson points out, the last stretch of Trans European Network-status road running between Felixstowe and Holyhead which has not been dualled.

Furthermore, it is currently something of a hotch potch. There is that relatively short dual carriageway section near Nesscliffe, along which some motorists bomb to get past all the lorries before the road becomes a single carriageway again. It is a road with two lanes, three lanes, four lanes... It is not a coherent part of the transport network, and having wide fast stretches narrow to slow stretches has obvious hazards in fuelling the irritation and impatience of those motorists who are prepared to take a chance.

In regard to cold blooded finances, cutting down accidents and saving lives, and reducing traffic congestion, does save money, although obviously improving the road does involve an up-front investment.While the financial weather is unpromising, Shropshire and Mr Paterson can make an argument that this is a cost-effective project.

The M54 becomes a dual carriageway, which skirts Shrewsbury, and then becomes a bit of everything. If for no other reason, logic demands that this stretch should be consistently upgraded.