A453
While we are on the subject of roads…
As reported a couple of days ago , the widening of the A453 in Nottinghamshire is now set to happen – fabulous news for all in the area. But this will not only help with travel times and access, but should also reduce accidents and deaths on what is a very dangerous road.
As a nation we seem to avert our eyes from certain risks to our health – the classic one is smoking (known to kill but such a part of our tax system that it will never die), one of the others is deaths on our roads.
We take car use for granted, and consider it a right that no one should be able to take away from us. Because of this we have people on the road who perhaps should have given up driving years ago, and possibly some who should never have been given a licence in the first place! I believe this also makes policing the issues more difficult than perhaps it should be.
I am not sure there is an easy answer to the problems – but it is sobering to see a map of accidents over the last 10 years in the UK that have taken a life. This has been prepared using Stats 19, a police forensic database that sets out the location and severity of road accidents. It looks quite dramatic – each dot represents a life (and you can search it via this link), But the actual figures are even more horrific;
Between 2000 and 2010 32,955 people were killed on our roads
In the same time period 3,000,000 were seriously injured.
These are massive figures and something that we should be able to prevent – so why don’t we?
Thanks George!
So we are finally to get the widening of the A453 between Nottingham and the M1 at junction 25!
I can’t say I am going to get too excited until I see the work start – we have been here before and the rug was pulled! But assuming it does now happen this is fabulous news for Nottingham and will greatly enhance the City for inward investors.
It had appeared that the Government were unimpressed when the County Council offered the government a £20m contribution to bring the scheme forward. But the campaign to widen the road has garnered support from the local business community and other local councils, including a pledge of £500,000 towards the scheme from Rushcliffe Borough Council back in October.
Why did it need doing?
- The Nottinghamshire section of the road is the second most congested part of the national road network after a short section of the M25
- Scheme to dual the road has already been subject to a public enquiry and subject to the secretary of state’s decision would effectively be ‘ready to go’
- Without the widening scheme, it is forecast that up to 30,000 vehicles a day will travel along the route by 2027, making congestion even worse
- In the five years up to October 2010, there were 185 accidents involving personal injury on just the Nottinghamshire part of the A453.
Consequently the effect of this being given consent cannot be under estimated;
To the region as a whole, it has been estimated that an improved A453 will bring a boost to the economy of £540m.
Bring it on…………..
We’re still here Mr Osborne!
It never ceases to amaze me how ‘London centric’ our economy is – I know there is bound to be a natural attraction to the capital and the South as it is closer to our European neighbours. But, in all my years in the East Midlands we always appear to be overlooked by Central Government.
However, we have some great businesses and in the last few days some good news stories – 1500 jobs at Toyota over the next two years as an example. And, strangely our Prime Minister was on hand when this announcement was made – good news it appears attracts Government from out of the depths of the South into the frozen North!
Obviously we all know that the East Midlands lies in the middle of the country and not the North – that is blindingly obvious to all but those in power! We have also produced many of the UK’s major success stories – Boots, Rolls Royce, Paul Smith to name but a few – but still we are overlooked or just plain ignored by central Government when it comes to investment.
More good news today that the first part of the A46 was opened around Bingham – that should help with traffic on the East of the City. But we are still in need of the A453 widening to link us up quickly to the M1 at junction 25.
If the press are to be believed (unlikely I know) then in his Autumn Statement the chancellor may well offer some money for large road works or similar to help stimulate the economy – how much of that money is likely to hit the East Midlands?
Only time will tell – over to you George..
The M25 – 25 years of ‘fun’
It doesn’t seem 25 years ago that the large circular car park was installed around London. I recall that it was going to ease traffic and access around the city – but was almost instantly filled with traffic.
It is still a source of wonder when one gets to drive for more than a few miles on the M25 without hitting a queue or the dreaded ‘worm effect’. Things probably would be worse getting around London without it – but you have to wonder!
Perhaps more than anything the M25 highlights the 1980’s belief that you could just build roads to get rid of congestion – it doesn’t work now and it did not work then!
That is not to say that road building should stop though – there are areas that desperately need investment in this form – Nottingham is a classic case. The A453 from J24 of the M1 has been due to be dualed into Nottingham for as long as I have been living here (over 30 years). This vital link to the city is getting slower and more congested every year.
Why don’t the Government take a leaf out of the book used by the USA during the depression and put money into the building of infrastructure – the Americans built the Hoover Dam – why can’t we at least dual to A453 we have been waiting for more than 25 years!
The Local ‘Cost of Cuts’
The Government announced today where they intend to make the cost savings that will add up to the six billion pounds they have undertaken to save this year. The majority of cuts come as no surprise, and most are frankly ‘no brainers’;
A freeze on civil service recruitment
Cuts to quango’s.
Cuts in Government transport costs.
Cancelling IT projects.
To name a few.
However as the saying goes ‘there is no gain without pain’, and for Nottingham this is very true.
I have lived in Nottingham since 1980, and since then plans for the dueling of the A453 have been either proposals, plans or a lost chance. The link between Junction 24 of the M1 and the City of Nottingham is fundamental to the future of the city. Once again the works have been put on hold, not a surprise, but a massive disappointment.
We have been lucky with the A46 works over the last few years, this has opened up the Eastern side of the County. The current works to the section between Bingham and Newark will still go ahead, so the focus of the M1 will move more to Leicester than Nottingham as a link to Lincolnshire.
We have to hope that the A453 works come back onto the Highways Agency schedule soon or we will see Nottingham fall behind other cities in the region if we are not careful.
The proposed new route for the Nottingham Tram is also now ‘up for review’ again. The Central Government financial contribution is in question, this might well please our new Conservative County Council who have been totally un-suportive in respect of the tram, but is another potentialy huge blow to the city.
We are in for an ‘interesting’ couple of years. Let’s hope there are no more ‘surprises’ in the cuts!
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