Effort to improve A529 Road Safety

Shropshire county council is bidding for funding of £3.8m from the government in order to improve road safety on the A529 between Audlem, Market Drayton and on to Hinstock.

£175m has been earmarked to be made available to local councils specifically for improvements in road safety.

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 ... 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.

Drivers slowing down

Research by vehicle tracking firm Quartix has shown that on the A529, while the speed limit is 60mph, the majority of drivers are averaging a speed 42mph. almost twenty miles per hour lower than the legal speed limit.

"This research shows that experienced drivers are ditching the statutory speed limit and driving at what they consider to be a safe speed on rural roads," says Quartix CEO Andy Walters. "The problem is young drivers are often taught to drive 'to the limit' and this, put simply, is dangerous and often life threatening."

No details of what type of improvements or changes might be made to the road arre available as yet.

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