Shropshire Star

Improvements to A5 where three people died in crash to be discussed at Shropshire MPs meeting

Improvements to the A5 where three people died in a crash at the weekend will be discussed at a meeting of Shropshire MPs on Friday.

Published
Owen Paterson with the 2018 Roads minister Andrew Jones MP on the A5 south of Oswestry

North Shropshire MP, Owen Paterson, called for a report on a strategy being worked up to improve both the A5 and the A483 in the Oswestry area to be brought to the October meeting.

He said it was time that work began on making long term safety changes to the road to prevent more deaths.

The three deaths followed a crash on the A5 near West Felton at around 10.35pm on Friday and involved two cars, a blue Nissan and a silver Ford Mondeo.

West Mercia Police said that the driver of the Mondeo, a 75-year-old man and the car’s passenger, a 73-year-old woman, both from Oswestry, were pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the Nissan, a 24-year-old man from Oswestry, was taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital but police said that he later died from his injuries.

The Northern Marches cross border working group has been looking at the A5 and the A483 for the past year.

It draws representatives from Shropshire Council, the Welsh Government, Midlands Connect, Highways England and Shropshire MPs.

Inadequate

Mr Paterson has been campaigning for the dualling of the A5 north of Shrewsbury for the last 20 years and says that the latest tragedy highlights the importance to get work underway.

"It is an absolute priority to dual this inadequate, busy road," he said.

He has also called for an urgent meeting with transport minister, Grant Shapps.

Over past years a succession of roads ministers have visited the A5 and the A483 to see the problems for themselves.

Shropshire Council's portfolio holder for Transport, Councillor Steve Davenport said any long term improvements were still some years away but he said he was hopeful that they would come to fruition.

"We have come further in the past year than we have over the past 20 years and we now have engineers working on a range of possible measures," he said.

"Everyone, including the Welsh government has come together to work as a team to look at these roads."

"In the light of the most recent, tragic deaths, I have asked police to furnish me with figures of fatal and serious incidents over the past 10 years and have been given assurances from John Campion, West Mercia's police and crime commissioner, that these will be put together for me," he said.

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