Roundabout open after decades of campaigns
JUNCTION HAS BEEN SCENE OF MANY CRASHES
ROAD safety campaigners have welcomed a new roundabout at a notorious accident hotspot on the A6 in the south of the county.
The Kettering Road junction, near Market Harborough, had been the scene of several serious crashes over the years.
Cars and lorries were allowed onto the roundabout for the first time this week.
It marks the culmination of successive campaigns to improve safety at the dangerous junction over several decades.
The latest saw more than 500 people sign a petition last year calling for an urgent overhaul.
Harborough district councillor Phil Knowles said: “Well it’s certainly been a very long-term project. I remember this being a point of considerable debate during the eighties and the nineties.
“There were suggestions about traffic lights and traffic islands, and quite a number of other ideas.”
Campaigners fnally saw their chance with the submission of plans for a major new housing estate off Clack Hill, to the south-east of the town.
When permission was granted by
Harborough District Council, the council and county highways authority were able to introduce the new roundabout as a key condition for the development going ahead. It has been completed ahead of schedule by contractors working for Davidsons Homes, and joins a second roundabout built at the entrance to the new estate in Kettering Road.
A few years ago, traffic on the A6 had been banned from turning right from the dual carriageway into Kettering Road. But it meant drivers heading south out of Kettering Road were forced to cross the path of oncoming cars, lorries and buses.
Coun Knowles said the new roundabout will come as a great relief for many people living in the area.
“A lot of people have been involved in the campaign for this upgrade and improvements,” he said. “It’s been ongoing for many, many years so I think there are a lot of people very pleased to see this finally come to fruition.”