PRESSURE group Safe38 has called on Cornwall’s councillors, MPs and residents to speak with one voice and declare a “Road Safety Emergency” on the A38.

The group’s chairman, James Millidge, has expressed disappointment that the long-awaited improvements on the trunk road are being classed as a “safety package” rather than a major upgrade scheme by the Department for Transport (DfT). This means that the dual carriageway Safe38 says is needed from Carkeel to Trerulefoot looks further off being built than ever.

Instead, Highways England is looking at various alternative options for improving the A38 on this stretch: these could include a single carriageway bypass for the village of Tideford.

“It’s become clear that the scope of the project is much more limited than we’d hoped,” said Mr Millidge.

“We welcome the safety package, but it ties Highways England’s hands.

“Highways England is currently working on a number of options that they’ll present to the public at a consultation next year. A dual carriageway is not one of them. We think this is a real shame. We want to see the project re-classified, and let the public say what they’d prefer.

“They say the traffic levels don’t warrant it, and that a modern, single-carriageway road would be the safest option. But we just don’t see the logic in that. It’s not building for the future.”

Safe38 says that plans for a dualling of the A38 from Saltash to Trerulefoot were first put forward 30 years ago, and that the Dobwalls bypass was created to ease traffic that was at a lesser level. They worry that making a single lane bypass will just displace problems elsewhere and could lead to local roads being used as ‘rat runs’.

Land acquisition discussions going on, said Safe38’s chairman, indicate that there is a view to the possibility of dualling the road at some point in future.

“We feel we’d rather wait a few more years for a better solution than rush out a less favourable one. We want what’s going to save the most lives, and the most livelihoods, in the long-term.”

In the end, said Mr Millidge, the political will needs to be there to spend the money, and he says that councils and stakeholders in South East Cornwall must now fight for the investment.

The A38 in SE Cornwall has a fatality and serious injury rate more than three times the national average for a road of its type, says Safe38. It operates over capacity, leading to chronic congestion, it cuts villages in half, is impassable to the tallest vehicles, liable to heavy flooding, has steep inclines and extreme bends and regular unplanned closures.

“One would be hard pressed to find another section of the Strategic Road Network that is in such desperate need of investment due to the myriad of deficiencies with it,” said Mr Millidge.

“The Case for Action for the A38 demonstrated that an improved road would bring £900 million into Cornwall.”