Is roundabout the solution for deadly crossroads?

By Paul Rogers, Local Democracy Reporter

A notorious crossroads on our border with Shropshire that has been deemed one of the most dangerous roads in the West Midlands could be turned into a roundabout.

More than 140 people attended a public meeting at Llanymynech Memorial Hall on Thursday evening to hear what can be done to improve the Llynclys crossroads, on the A483.

It was organised by Helen Morgan, the MP for North Shropshire, who has long campaigned for improvements at the crossroads.

Also in attendance were representatives from National Highways, West Mercia Police and Shropshire Council, and Steve Witherden, the MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr.

Joe Walmsley, route manager at National Highways, said the authority has been looking at the area “for quite a while now”.

“We have been working with Helen and local authorities to look at what we can do about that,” he said.

“We are looking at three separate projects. The first one is looking at drainage and road surface upgrades, and two that are safety related.

“We are taking forward proposals for a route safety scheme, which will look at various different things, like speed limits, road signage, visibility of road markings, and enforcement.

“The second safety scheme we’re looking at is at the Llynclys crossroads. What our proposals are and what we are looking for is a roundabout to put in place in the crossroads, with a slight realignment on some of the local road networks where it connects in.

“We have got a design for this roundabout, and that is what we’ve been working on for the past year with representatives. It will have a natural effect on neighbouring landowners, so we’re now in a point where we’re reaching out to start discussions with them.”

Mr Walmsley explained that National Highways is funded in five-year investment cycles by the Government, with the third cycle to begin in April.

Monitoring of traffic movements has already taken place at the crossroads, while the next stage is to take core samples out of the road.

“We’re going to do topography studies to see what ground works need doing, and doing drainage works,” said Mr Walmsley.

“I can’t stand here and say ‘we’re going to deliver it on this date’, but there’s a lot of confidence and we’re working really hard to secure the funding to be able to deliver what we know is needed.

“We know there have been a lot of suggestions made about what we can and can’t do. We’ve looked at three different options.

“Two have included traffic signals, and one a roundabout. Our stance is ‘if we’re going to do it, let’s do it properly’ and that is a roundabout.

“When we looked at traffic signals, although they’re seen as being a quick fix, that’s often not quite the case and it would have been just as complicated if we ran through electrical connections. So that is why we’ve landed on the roundabout being our preferred route to addressing the concerns at the crossroads.”

Mrs Morgan was asked by a member of the public how confident she was in getting any money at all in the next 10 years.

“We’ve had a change of [Roads] Minister. We had a number of meetings with [previous minister] Lilian Greenwood, and I came out of them feeling really quite confident.

“[Current minister] Simon Lightwood? I’m slightly less confident, I’ll be completely honest with you. But they have funded detailed design work, which is a good sign. If they had no interest whatsoever, it would be a pipeline project and we wouldn’t have the funding for National Highways to do the detailed design work they have done.

“So, they have started spending quite a lot of money for plans for this crossroad in particular. I cannot guarantee it will happen, but I have some confidence that this is worth pursuing.”