In February 2006 the A140 Campaign wrote to every Suffolk County Councillor, all the local MPs and the local press, demanding that Suffolk County Council should immediately put in hand a programme of achievable, affordable short-term measures to improve the road and cut accidents. Some of the proposals were included in SCC's own strategy document for the road, years ago - but they have so far done nothing.
The measures were …
• identify minor road junctions that can be closed off
• re-model the remaining junctions following the example of the existing junction at Mickfield/Mendlesham Green which has adequate right-turn lanes and good visibility
• install rumble-strips to warn drivers on unrestricted minor roads that they are about to join the A140
• provide spacious lay-bys at regular intervals to allow slow-moving vehicles to pull over, and give lorry-drivers the chance to stop when required to do so by the regulations on driving hours
To see the full text of the document, click here.
Finally (November 2006) and it has to be said, not without some prompting from us, Suffolk County Council have replied. Here is the text of the email from Councillor Guy McGregor, Portfolio Holder for Roads and Transport …
"I refer to The A140 Campaign note entitled "The A140 - Sort it now!" I'd like to clarify a few points before commenting on your Campaign's proposals.
"Although the A140 safety record has had extensive press coverage it is in fact incorrect to refer to the A140 as "probably the most dangerous road in Suffolk". When taking into account accident numbers and traffic volumes the A140 accident rate (measured in accidents per 100 million vehicle-kilometres) is well down on a list of other A roads in Suffolk.
"Contrary to the assertion, traffic levels do not appear to be increasing on the A140 and have held at around 15,500 5-day average daily flows since 2002. Indeed the 2005 flows have slightly dropped compared to the 2004 flows. By contrast the A11 has seen a rise in traffic volumes over the same time which fits well with the aims to route longer-distance travellers onto the A11 which has more sections of dual carriageway.
"Comparisons to the A140 in Norfolk show that the lengths of road and accident rates are similar in the two counties but because the traffic flows are higher in Norfolk they have in the past suffered from larger accident numbers. I note your comments about Norfolk County Council 's bypass policy. The Scole Bypass was in fact funded by the government before the A140 was detrunked and at present the plans for a Long Stratton Bypass are unsure. Although NCC have pressed on with this expensive scheme the government is not prepared to confirm the Orders (to build it and acquire land) as NCC have not secured the funding for the bypass either from the private sector or from regional funds.
"The criticism of the speed limits misses the point that many accidents on the A140 were tail-end shunts with vehicles colliding into the rear of vehicles waiting to turn off the road. By introducing lower speed limits we have allowed drivers more time to brake and they have a reduced stopping distance. Our Committee reports have shown compelling evidence that the 50mph speed limits have been effective and killed and seriously injured numbers have reduced.
"Turning to the measures proposed by the Campaign we are indeed progressing with the outstanding issues raised in previous reports. At present we are prioritising next year's works programmes and have included a study to look at identifying minor junctions that could be closed. We are seeking to carry out further improvements to the Coddenham and Brome junctions and also the provision of more lay-bys. Although the A1120 junction is busy the recent accident record does not justify treatment from our safety engineering budget and any improvement may have to be assessed over a longer time period. We will consider the concerns that some drivers may need more warnings that they are about to join the A140.
"We have also recently consulted on the speed limits on the A140 and will be modifying these next Spring. We will be removing the 40mph buffers, extending some of the 30mph limits through villages and maintaining the 50mph limit elsewhere, and the 40mph limit through Brome. Having improved the safety record on this road these modifications will provide a more consistent message to drivers.
"I am sure we can all agree that the A140 is not as good as it should be, but the capital costs of any major improvement would have to be borne by the government and they have made it clear that since detrunking they have no regional priorities for doing this. As such it falls to Suffolk County Council to continue with lower cost improvement which I consider have been effective to date.
Guy McGregor
County Councillor
Portfolio Holder for Roads and Transport"
Although we at the A140 Campaign disagree with many of Councillor McGregor's points, we were very pleased to hear from him, and delighted that our suggestions are being taken seriously. This is the reply sent to him by our Webmaster, David Bramhall …
"Dear Guy McGregor,
"Thank you very much for your email, which was most welcome.
"We evidently have to agree to disagree about some things. There is certainly a very strong perception in the minds of the public about the dangers of the A140 - in our recent survey a full 80% of respondents said they believed the A140 to be dangerous, and 67% were dissatisfied with the current speed-limits.
"On traffic-flows I must accept your statement, not having ready access to up-to-date figures myself. Incidentally, has anyone done any projections about how the A140 might be affected by the proposed Snoasis project?
"I am confused about the comparison between the Norfolk A140 and the Suffolk A140. I have to believe what I read in the newspapers. We all do, about anything - the Iraq War, immigration, global warming, you name it! We have to assume that the newspapers are reasonably accurate and form our opinions on that basis. And if newspapers are NOT accurate, it should be the responsibility of those agencies that hold the correct information to correct them. The figures that I have (21 deaths between Norwich and Scole 1987-2005 against 57 deaths between Scole and the A14 1987-2005) come from the EDP article in November 2005. Were they not correct?
"I feel that the theory about speed-limits and rear-end shunts misses the point, though obviously nobody could deny that the slower the shunt is, the less serious the injuries are likely to be. But by that token we should all drive at 10mph and then the roads would be really safe. The aim should be to avoid the rear-end shunts altogether. Our fastest roads, the motorways, are also the safest because they minimise the possibility of conflicting traffic movements and have no side-turnings. Naturally the A140 isn't ever going to be a motorway or anything like it, but the principle of giving drivers fewer opportunities to make mistakes can still be applied.
"I am, therefore, very pleased to hear that closing minor junctions is under consideration. The junction improvements and lay-bys are also very good news. And I congratulate you on the decision to do something about the 40mph limits - a lot of people are going to be pleased about that (mind you, a lot of people also don't really understand why these things take so long!).
"On the question of warning drivers as they approach the A140 from minor roads, I am very pleased that you have taken this on board. As I have said before, there is only anecdotal evidence - how could there be anything else, barring an actual tragedy? - and it might be useful for you to know that nearly all of the anecdotes I have heard concern the junction at the White Horse. Possibly there's something about the lie of the land there that makes the main road hard to see until you're right on top of it; it would certainly be a good place for an experiment. The advantage of rumble strips is that they don't pollute the landscape as traffic signs do - there are quite enough of those already!
"Are these proposed improvements (junctions, closures and speed-limit alterations) public knowledge yet? We will inevitably be talking to the EADT and the Evening Star in the near future, so it would be nice to be able to congratulate SCC for once!
Thanks again.
KRs
David Bramhall
Webmaster, The A140 Campaign"
Copyright © 2006 The A140 Campaign
This site created and maintained by PlainSite