Cat & Fiddle in Top 10 improved roads

The 'Cat & Fiddle' road in the top ten most improved roads in Britain

The A537 Cat & Fiddle Road in Macclesfield has dropped out of the list of persistently higher risk roads and is now amongst the top ten improved roads in Britain, according to the Road Safety Foundation EuroRAP results for 2015.

Investment from Cheshire East Council and partners has resulted in a number of road safety improvements to promote safe use of the previously dangerous, six-mile stretch of road to deliver a reduction in the number and severity of road traffic incidents.

The investment has seen the upgrade of safety barrier systems and introduction of 'motorcycle friendly' barriers, a 50mph speed limit and installation of average speed cameras, all supported by regular routine maintenance activities including resurfacing and road marking renewals.
The Road Safety Foundation list the A537 as the fifth most improved road in Britain based on comparison of collision data between the 2008-10 and 2011-13.
Improved roads are 'those where there has been a statistically significant reduction in the number of fatal and serious crashes over time', with the Cat & Fiddle Road seeing a 77 per cent decrease in fatal and serious collisions.

This achievement in reduction of road injuries has been recognised by Andrew Jones MP (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport).
Cheshire East Council Leader, Michael Jones, said: "Promotion of the safe use of our roads by all road users is an absolute priority. We will continue to encourage responsible use of the A537 to ensure this significant drop in collisions is maintained."

The A537 has featured in all previous EuroRAP survey results in the list of persistently higher risk roads. The road has entered the most improved table after seeing a significant reduction in the number of serious crashes from 31 to 7 between 2008-10 and 2011-13.

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