Shropshire Council bid for £3.8m to make notorious A529 safer
A council is bidding for nearly £4 million to improve safety on one of the country's worst roads.
The A529 has been recognised as one of the 50 roads with the worst safety record in Britain, and Shropshire Council has confirmed it will bid for £3.8million from the Government to make the road safer.
The council hopes to benefit from a slice of £175million Government funding.
It comes after the road, which runs between Hinstock and Audlem, including Market Drayton, was described as being one of riskiest for people to be killed or seriously injured.
It is not yet known exactly what safety improvements would be carried out with the funding, but work would be phased over a two to three year period on a 12 mile stretch of the road.
Andy Wilde, Shropshire Council’s highways programme manager, said: “In 2017 the Department for Transport produced the 'Funding for Local Transport: The Safer Roads Document'.
"This formally identified the following two sections of the A529 in Shropshire within the top 50 roads in the country with the highest ‘risk’ of being killed or seriously injured.
“The total length of identified road is 20km. Shropshire Council will be making an application for funding from the National Safer Roads Fund, which will be spent on road safety improvements along these two stretches of road.
"The bid, which will be in the region of £3.8million, is required to be submitted by September 30.
“If Shropshire Council is successful in its funding bid, the work is likely to be phased over a two to three year period, following a formal consultation process.”
Last year, a 23-year-old man died when the car he was a passenger in left the A529 and went down an embankment.
In 2015, a 80-year-old woman died following a two-vehicle crash on the A529 at the Sweet Appletree crossroads, near Hinstock.
Hinstock Parish Council described the stretch of road near the village as an "accident blackspot" and said it was hoping to put forward recommendations to Shropshire Council to make it safer.
Earlier this year another study found the A529 to be one of the UK’s 10 deadliest stretches.
The study focused on rural, single lane carriageways with 60mph speed limits as these account for more deaths and serious injuries than any other road type.
Telematics firm Quartix said more education was needed for younger drivers who are always told to "stick to the speed limit" even when it's not safe to do so.
