Christchurch Road to get £2m worth of road safety improvements

Even more improvements coming to Boscombe

The A35 from St Pauls Roundabout to Ilford Bridge will have £1.8m spent on it as part of a national investment of almost £50m to help prevent fatal and serious injuries on Britain's roads.

The Department for Transport confirmed today that safety improvements such as re-designing junctions and improving signage and road markings will be taking place between the A338 at St Pauls (ASDA) and the A35 at Ilford, through Boscombe.

The programme will reduce the risk of collisions, in turn reducing congestion, journey times and emissions.  

To date, £100m has been provided through the programme to improve the fifty most dangerous roads in England, the majority of which are rural roads. Some of the improvements already made include improved signage, safer pedestrian crossings and better designed junctions.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said:   “Britain’s roads are some of the safest in the world, but we are always looking at ways to help keep motorists and all road users safer.

“That’s why we’re investing nearly £9 million to improve road safety across the South West and this is the first crucial step to ensuring local councils have the support they need to keep everyone safe, while also reducing congestion and emissions.”

Dr Suzy Charman, Executive Director of the Road Safety Foundation said:  “The commitment and funding announced today is transformational for road safety teams in local authorities across the country.  It will allow them to proactively reduce risk and make these 27 roads safer and more inviting for all road users.

“Systematic changes have already had a big impact on road death and serious injury, for example seatbelts and airbags protect lives when crashes happen.  In the same way we can design roads so that when crashes happen people can walk away, by clearing or protecting roadsides, putting in cross hatching to add space between vehicles, providing safer junctions like roundabouts or adding signalisation and/or turning pockets, and including facilities for walking and cycling.”