A plea has gone out to the Government to urge it to invest in safety measures on a major South Cumbrian road.
The Cumbria Better Connected campaign group have written to Roads Minister Baroness Vere, encouraging her to look at investing in improvements on the A590.
It comes after recent incidents on the road where a cyclist in his 80s died after being in collision with a van, and two air ambulances were called to a separate crash involving a car and an HGV.
The letter, signed by the group’s chair Tim Farron MP for Westmorland and Losdale and Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell, Cumbria Tourism, Cumbria LEP and other local politicians and organisations, sets out a list of safety improvements, including:
- A roundabout at Gilpin Bridge
- Removing the short dualling at the Lakeside-Haverthwaite railway station
- Introducing a 40mph speed limit past Newby Bridge petrol station
- Consider 50mph between the end of the High Newton bypass and Greenodd
- Widening the carriageway to enable safe turning at Newby Bridge garage
- Installing average speed cameras from Greenodd to the High Newton bypass and elsewhere along the road
- Creating a cycle, horse and pedestrian bridge over the A590 west of the Lakeside-Haverthwaite railway station
- Introducing comprehensive signs and road markings to alert road users to the danger of the road and the need for greater patience and slower speeds
In the latest data from the Department for Transport – which covers January 1 2015 to December 31 2019 – there have been eight fatalities, 14 serious accidents and 58 slight accidents on the A590.
The group said in its letter: “We write to you to express our deep concern about the safety of road users travelling on the A590 – a vital transport link between Barrow-in-Furness, Kendal and the M6.
“We know that National Highways have been working with local communities along the route to identify the areas that are leading to accidents and put in place measures to improve safety.
“However there is clearly much more that needs to be done and that funding must be available to implement a raft of measures which would improve safety on the road.
“These measures we strongly believe will protect road users and ultimately save lives.”
