Letter from Highways England to Parish Council in response to pressures to replace the railings;-

I’m happy to report back that we’re planning a scheme to include the replacement of the railings. The whole scheme will seek to improve facilities for pedestrians crossing the A47 to access the bus stops at East Winch. A new facility across Gayton Road will also be provided.

The pedestrian rails will be replaced with a different type and signing will be updated to improve visibility and awareness of the junction and the crossing to motorists on the A47. This is important because the main purpose of guardrails is to improve safety by trying to prevent pedestrians from crossing the road at an inappropriate place or from straying into the road inadvertently. They are not intended to provide sufficient protection in the case of a direct collision with motorised vehicles.

The scheme is due to be designed in the financial year 2019-20, starting next month. Then the construction is due to take place in 2020-21.

I realise that this may not be as soon as you would hope. Due to the way that we are funding the project and fitting the work in to our programme, this is the earliest that we are able to deliver this project. As the improvements to the footway will require the railings to be removed, all of the work needs to be done at the same time and it is not possible to replace the railings in isolation before the rest of the project. But we would like to reassure you that we’ll continue to monitor the railings’ condition. If they deteriorate to an extent where they’re likely to pose a safety risk, we will take interim measures to make them safe.

Thank you again for your enquiry and providing photographs, it’s always useful to receive information about the state of our network.

Kind regards

Dawn

Dawn Bostock, Asset Development Administrator
Operations (East)

Highways England | Woodlands | Manton Lane | Bedford | MK41 7LW
Tel: +44 (0) 300 470 5080