28th September 2023
Councillor calls for urgent road safety measures
CORNWALL County Councillor Armand Toms is continuing to press for road safety action on highways in both the parish and further afield.
As well as calling for improvements to the B3252 (Looe-Liskeard road), the scene of several fatalities over the years, Cllr Toms has said that drivers are two-and-a-half times more likely to be seriously injured or die on the A38 than on any other road in Cornwall.
National Highways, which is responsible for the A38, had previously announced a package of measures for the trunk road, including reduced speed limits, speed cameras, improved road and junction layouts and upgraded bus lay-bys.
However, the Department for Transport announced earlier this year that the promised improvements, which were due to take place between 2025 and 2030, had been delayed on financial grounds.
The work is now planned between 2030 and 2035 – and that, says Cllr Toms, is far too late.
Speaking at a full council meeting in Truro, the independent councillor who represents Looe East and Deviock, including Morval Parish, said: “How many more people are going to die or be seriously injured on the A38 in the next seven years?”
He proposed a motion that Cornwall Council carries out a full design for improvements and safety on the A38 as it has done on the A30 and the St Austell Link Road, with the design being for dualling of three sections – Saltash to Trerulefoot, Trerulefoot to Dobwalls and Dobwalls to Bodmin.
His bid was seconded by Cllr Jane Pascoe (the Conservative member for Liskeard South and Dobwalls), a former town mayor of Liskeard, who grew up at the family home in Plashford, near Sandplace.
It is believed that National Highways’ original scheme to dual the road from Saltash to Bodmin would have cost in the region of £1.5-billion but the Saltash to Trerulefoot section could be dualled at a cost of about £310-million.
“We can do this,” said Cllr Toms, (pictured). “£16m (the cost of the design budget) for the first stage for the Carkeel to Trerulefoot section… though a mixture of borrowing and funds… gives you parity to what’s been done for sections of the A30.
“You are two-and-a-half times more likely to have a serious injury or die on the A38; that is a fact and it’s in the reports.”
Cllr Colin Martin, who represents Lostwithiel and is the leader of the Liberal Democrats group at Cornwall Council, asked for a meeting with South East Cornwall’s Tory MP Sheryll Murray to ensure that the government’s policy on accidents was ‘fairer’ for people in Cornwall.
Addressing his comment directly to the county’s new portfolio holder for transport, Cllr Richard Pears, Cllr Martin said: “Thinking about the A38 and funding, are you aware that the funding model for justifying value-for-money on investments funded by the Treasury calculates the benefits and the costs based on not just the number of people using the road, but average local wages?
“Because average wages in Cornwall, particularly South East Cornwall, are lower than the national average, someone being stuck for an hour in a queue on the A38 in Cornwall is worth less to the government than someone stuck for the same amount of time in a queue on a road in Surrey.
“The way that they calculate the value of an accident is not actually based on the person who’s been injured, it’s based on the loss of working time of the number of people stuck in the queue.
“The way they calculate the value of a death is not so much on the pain and suffering caused to the family, it’s based on the loss of working time of the person who’s died.
“But because it uses the average lower wages in Cornwall it means that the government’s policy for funding roads says Cornish lives are worth less than lives in other parts of the country.”
Cllr Pears admitted that he was unaware of the funding model to which Cllr Martin referred, but said he would investigate the matter and report back. "I certainly wouldn't want the lives of Cornish people to be valued at any less,” he said.