Protest over road misery (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Protest over road misery

TWENTY placard-waving protesters mounted a rally calling for action to end traffic misery caused by the A417 last week.

The Brimpsfield residents held the demo on Friday afternoon on the Cowley Roundabout at the start of the notorious 'missing link' stretch of the road at Nettleton Bottom.

Residents are fed up with motorists using their village as a rat-run to avoid rush-hour congestion on the carriageway.

Like many residents living near the road, they want a tunnel built between Nettleton and Brockworth.

Villager Dab Wheeler said: "Drivers are coming from both directions on narrow roads.

"We're very concerned because there are 30 children in the village and there are mums with prams, it's very dangerous. We wanted to keep the pressure up on the powers that be."

Mrs Wheeler said many drivers showed support for the tunnel by beeping their horns.

Villagers have also written to transport minister John Spellar calling for a tunnel.

The Brimpsfield residents are the third group of campaigners to mount a roadside protest on the carriageway, one of the worst accident blackspots in the country.

Just this weekend, three people were injured when a Jaguar car was involved in a collision with a VW Polo at the Birdlip turn.

The Jaguar driver and his two passengers were taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital after the accident at 11.30am on Sunday. Their injuries are not believed to be serious.

The protests have been organised because the Highways Agency is conducting a six-month study into the problems.

The congestion is caused because the three-mile 'missing link section of the A417 was left as a single carriageway when the rest of the road was upgraded in 1997.