Lincolnshire County Council has backed a call for safety improvements along the A1
The road passes through a number of places including Lincolnshire, Rutland and Peterborough
There are calls for road safety to be improved for drivers on the A1 across Lincolnshire and Rutland.
The stretch of road, which also passes through Peterborough and Leicestershire, has been in the spotlight recently as Rutland and Stamford MP Alicia Kearns is campaigning for a “substantial solution” to improve issues.
After the General Election, she wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport, Louise Haigh, requesting an urgent meeting to discuss the further safety upgrades needed.
She stated:
“Transport for the East Midlands found 60% of drivers feel unsafe driving on the A1, and over half report either being in an accident or knowing someone who has been in one. In 2022, there were 500 collisions on the A1, which is 26% more than on the A5 and 16% more than on the A2.
“This affects dozens of constituencies, as the A1 is the longest road in this country, often referred to as the highway to the north and it has a greater share of freight passing along it than almost any other road in use in Britain today.”
Kearns later secured a debate to raise the issues in Parliament which happened on Monday.
There have been almost 1,000 crashes on the A1 between Peterborough and Blyth since 2015, according to Midlands Connect.
Councillor Richard Davies, executive member for Highways at LCC, acknowledged the dangers of the road but insisted that simply closing the junctions was not the way forward:
He said: “The road is almost uniquely dangerous when compared to other major national routes, with almost weekly closures and unacceptably high numbers of accidents and injuries.
“The impact on those directly involved and the subsequent knock on in local villages and towns is unacceptable and represents a failure of the government to act.
“Simply closing all crossings is not the right approach. Instead, we need an intelligent review of each access and accident location so the right solutions are delivered.
“A cheap and cheerful ‘paint, signs and closures’ isn’t good enough: the road needs proper investment and, in places, that means substantial upgrades.”