Shrewsbury MP reveals dual carriageway plan for A49
Wednesday 30th November 2011, 10:59AM GMT.
Parts of the A49 could be turned into a dual carriageway if major investment is secured, Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski has said.
The Tory is attempting to start a co-ordinated campaign to win Government funding for road improvements and has requested a meeting with fellow county MPs Philip Dunne and Owen Paterson on the issue.
His call comes after chancellor George Osborne announced the Government would be investing more than £1 billion to tackle areas of congestion and improve the national road network, as well as committing £170 million of extra funding to allow more local transport projects to go ahead yesterday.
Mr Kawczynski said he hoped the county MPs would join together to campaign for improvements to be made to the A49 in order to make the route safer.
“The Chancellor has announced a massive increase in funding for road building projects, with extra money going into the Highways Agency,” he said.
“I travel on the A49 every week and I find the road very unsuitable. We should join forces to campaign for a massive improvement of the road and making it safer.”
In his letter to Mr Dunne and Mr Paterson, the Shrewsbury and Atcham MP said he believed the county now has the ‘perfect opportunity’ to get hold of the necessary investment. The call came the day after a man in his 50s died in a horror road crash on the road.
An incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning saw the man’s car collide with a lorry on the A49 just north of
Preston Brockhurst, near Wem. Both the car and lorry were left in flames, with the driver of the lorry left uninjured by the crash. It took 25 firefighters about two hours to get the blaze under control.
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“Could” + “If” = “Won’t”.
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Precisely.
Local MP in publicity stunt knowing full well there’s no chance of success but it looks though he’s doing something!
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Surely the A5 between Shrewsbury and Oswestry should be dualled first? And then possibly the Shrewsbury to Welshpool road.
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The road from Preston Boats roundabout up to the two Hentry’s should all be made dual carriage way, or at least split partly along rather than the dangerous extra-wide section that is presently there.
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I quite agree
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First and foremost where will he get the cash from again??? The article makes reference to sums of money being given to the Highways Agency. This is all well and good but the pictured section of the A49 (Prees Green i believe) and the mentioned Preston Brockhurst are north of Shrewsbury. This section of the A49 has been “de-trunked” and no longer forms part of the Highways Agency network. Therefore i doubt they will be willing to spend any money they may come to receive on improving a section of highway which no longer belongs to them!!! It’s Shropshire Council who are responsible for this section of the A49 and we all know how broke they claim to be.
Either Mr Kawazaki MP or the reporting Shropshire Star should do their homework first methinks……….
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Erm, Just where’s the cash coming from?
“George Osborne announced the Government would be investing more than £1 billion to tackle areas of congestion and improve the national road network, as well as committing £170 million of extra funding to allow more local transport projects to go ahead yesterday”
Thought we were skint “there is no money” Blah blah blah, if it is build you may find a big sign saying “funded by the EU” as have other roads but Kawazaki wont say so.
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