SOUTH East Cornwall is long overdue its fair share of investment, writes chair of Safe38 James Millidge.
On July 4 the constituents of South East Cornwall voted in a new MP. As a committee we’d like to congratulate Anna Gelderd MP and look forward to working with her on delivering a suitable solution for this important strategic road which runs through the middle of her constituency.
High on our new MP’s agenda must surely be to secure funding for the delivery of average speed cameras between Carkeel and Trerulefoot.
Safe38 has been campaigning since 2018 for their installation, and believe they must be delivered as a matter of urgency; certainly long before the current date of post 2030.
Any further delay is unacceptable given the shocking longstanding safety record of this road which has a KSI (Killed and Seriously Injured) rate 3.5 times higher than the national average for a road of its type.
Average speed cameras will saves lives and boost economic productivity due to less unplanned closures and the smoothing out of traffic flow. So, the challenge we set our new MP is to see if she is able to get the Department of Transport and National Highways to change their delivery plan for these improvements.
Longer term we need her to make the strategic case for far bigger improvements. Only a new dual carriageway bypass of the existing road, as was planned in the 1990’s, and junction improvements at Lean Quarry and Menheniot, will provide a road that is fit-for-purpose.
We need to remove traffic and pollution from the villages of Tideford and Landrake, and provide a road that can cope with the traffic levels that exist today. This would leave behind the current A38 to be used as a local access road for local traffic helping to reconnect severed communities and securing livelihoods.
As we have seen on the A30 in West Cornwall in recent weeks, such huge once-in-a-century infrastructure investments are transformational for Cornwall. Southeast Cornwall is long overdue its fair share of this type of investment.
