Leicestershire County Council's Response to Parish Council's concerns on A5199 Crossroads

Thank you for your further email, please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding.

Leicestershire County Council are now in receipt of the Police report for the collision that occurred on 20th October 2024. The Police have reported that there were no highway factors that contributed to the collision. There are no Police reports for the other three collisions mentioned during this period. I can confirm that after further investigations, there have been a total of 5 collisions at the A5199 Shearsby crossroads in the last five years, one involved serious injury in 2020 and 4 involved slight injury these occurred in 2021, 2022 and two in 2024.

The five collisions can be summarised as follows, three of the collisions involved vehicles emerging from Bruntingthorpe Road, two of which collided with vehicles travelling south-east bound and one north-west bound on Welford Road. Two of the collisions involved vehicles emerging from Saddington Road colliding with vehicles travelling north-west bound on Welford Road. Looking at the collision history, vehicles are failing to give way from either Saddington Road or Bruntingthorpe Road.

Please be assured the council takes the matter of road safety very seriously and has been involved in a significant amount of work regarding Shearsby crossroads area in recent years and this is indeed ongoing.

This consisted of the following road safety measures being implemented:

During 2016

We installed rumble strips on A5199 Welford Road in each direction, 'Slow' markings, enlarged the crossroad warning signs and added 'Reduce Speed Now' plates. Improved the give way signing with larger advanced Give Way signs (150 yds) from the junction on both approaches. We also changed the trigger speeds on the two existing Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) located on A5199.

It is standard procedure for Leicestershire County Council to conduct a three year post implementation to review if the measures have been effective. In the three year period (1st Feb 2013- 1st Feb 2016 ) before these measures were implemented there were 7 recorded injury collisions in the vicinity of the crossroads. This compares to the full three years after the scheme (1st Feb 2019 -1st Feb 2022) where there were 2 recorded injury collisions. This showed an overall reduction of over 50% in collisions at the crossroads.

During 2020

The A5199 from Kilby Bridge to Husbands Bosworth was lowered to 50mph from a National Speed Limit (NSL) road as part of our Rural Roads Initiative (RRI), a scheme that continues to analyse NSL roads where the collision rates exceed the national average for the type of road. This scheme included the approaches from the two minor side roads, Saddington Road and Bruntingthorpe Road.

In the three year period (1st Feb 2017- 1st Feb 2020) before the RRI scheme was implemented, there were 4 recorded injury collisions in the vicinity of the crossroads. This compares to the full three years after the scheme (1st Feb 2023 -validated data to end of Oct 2024) where there have been 2 recorded injury collisions. Again, this shows an overall reduction of 50% in collisions at the crossroads.

This determines the relative success of these measures has helped to improve road safety and reduce road collisions at these crossroads. In addition, we have carried out further measures in 2024, upgraded the Vehicle Activated signs (crossroads warning and 'Slow Down' message) on both A5199 approaches. Refreshed all the existing junction markings, this included the double white lines, arrows, give way triangles and the carriageway edge lines on Bruntingthorpe Road, Saddington Road and Welford Road.

It is appreciated that in a rural environment our road network can be challenging which necessitates motorists driving with more care and attention and following the advice contained within the Highway Code. It is incumbent on all the drivers to be aware of their surroundings and drive with due care and diligence when executing manoeuvres on the highway.

Notwithstanding all of the above, we can confirm that County Council will carry out further measures to address the failing to Give Way from the minor roads. This will include the enhancement of the signing for approaching drivers to further improve their awareness of the crossroads ahead and the replacement of the existing give way signs with new reflective fluorescent yellow backing board which will increase conspicuity. Please be advised due to manufacturing time for signs it will most likely be around 2-3 months before the signs are installed.

We trust these improvements will be welcomed by the parish and thank you again for taking the time to contact us regarding this matter.