By James Millidge, Chair of Safe38

The Safe38 columns have recently been few and far between as we have been awaiting feedback from the National Highways consultation on their plans for the RIS3 Safety Package which finally happened in June this year.

Although the proposals are far from what is needed (or what we had hoped for) to solve the myriad of issues with the current route, the Safe38 committee was relieved to see some short-term safety measures, such as average speed cameras, included in the list of proposed improvements.

However and it’s a big however, what is really quite bizarre and baffling for most of us at Safe38 is the huge of amount of time it will take to deliver what are mostly small-scale, relatively cheap interventions - especially when compared to delivering completely new sections of carriageway.

Not only that, many of those interventions such as the average speed cameras have already been delivered along stretches of the A38 - like the Glynn Valley - without any need to be included in any pipeline schemes and within 18 months of a request being made by Safe38 to National Highways. The very same kind of safety-camera installation for example as we now have in the Glynn Valley doesn’t look set to be delivered until at least 2027 under the current plans and time frames.

Most of us understand that this is just not acceptable, and that lives depend on these safety improvements being delivered far sooner. To this end, we have written to our local MP for SE Cornwall Sheryll Murray, and have asked her to lobby National Highways to deliver these safety measures as a priority and to make sure it is understood that we shouldn’t have to wait until 2027 for them to become a reality.

Even during an economic crisis of the scale we are now seeing, we believe it should be very possible for some of the more affordable interventions to be taken out of the Major Schemes RIS3 project and given to the National Highways Operations team to deliver far sooner than 2027. In fact, we feel lives and livelihoods depend on it.

We are now eagerly waiting to hear back on the progress that has been made regarding this and we would urge our supporters and any interested parties to also write to our MP to ask her to lobby National Highways too to prioritise the delivery of these lower-cost interventions.

Over the coming months I will be writing more about the need for a longer-term strategy to improve the A38 - a strategy that needs to address the historical chronic underinvestment in South East Cornwall’s strategic road infrastructure. The Department for Transport has four overarching strategic priorities and we will be asking how the A38 in Cornwall fairs regarding each of these. In the meantime, please do contact us via our Facebook group/page or the Safe38 website if you would like to support us in any way.