Shropshire Star comment: A5 battle must not be ignored
It has been one of the longest-running battles in Shropshire – the campaign to upgrade the A5 north of Shrewsbury to make it fit for purpose for the sheer volume of traffic that uses the route every day.
The A5 is a key road for Shropshire and Mid Wales that allows for the transport of people, visitors and goods and services.
And yet it is too congested, parts of it are dangerous, there are too many accidents and it does not allow the speedy throughflows of traffic that are necessary in the modern idiom.
The Government spends vast amounts on construction projects around the country.
These projects help us to move forward and advance our nation so that it can remain competitive in the 21st century.
And yet too often, sleepy old Shropshire seems to be at the back of the queue.
Tens of billions of pounds are allocated to such projects as HS2, but Shropshire has little to nothing.
Vast sums are diverted to Birmingham, London, Manchester and elsewhere.
There is the Northern Powerhouse scheme, there are centres of excellence for environmental technologies, money is spent on developing technologies that can be sold around the world.
To some in the corridors of power, Shropshire is viewed as a sleepy backwater where little happens.
And yet such an image is ludicrous, for Shropshire is a dynamic, progressive county with high levels of entrepreneurship, world-leading standards of engineering and a disproportionately high number of small and medium-sized companies.
We make no apologies for promoting the needs and interests of Shropshire.
On such issues as better internet connections, our rural enterprises must be considered the equal of go-getting businesses in populous metropolitan areas.
The same is true of our road network. It is no longer acceptable to have main trunk roads that have 30mph sections as they zig-zag past farms.
We need to keep the traffic moving so that businesses can operate at a good pace.
We need to provide people with fit-for-purpose transport links so that they can spend time working and being productive rather than sitting idly in cars wondering when the traffic will clear.
And that is aside from the very serious safety issues that can have such a devastating impact on victims and their families.
Our Dual It campaign is gaining traction and will soon go before the Government.
We now rely on our MPs to push hard to best represent the interests of local people.
We urge the Department of Transport to approve the dualling of the A5 without further delay.
