Finding cash to pay for improvements to 'terrifying' Leighton Buzzard bypass will determine whether work can start next year

The road is just over six miles long and links Dunstable to Bletchley. It starts from Watling Road at Houghton Regis, leading west towards Leighton Buzzard to the A4146/A418 Wing Road junction.

Flooding issues on the bypass after heavy rain and the route being used as a drag racing circuit have been among complaints expressed before.

Conservative Eaton Bray councillor Philip Spicer asked for a progress update during written questions at a full Central Bedfordshire Council meeting.

“Following the Leighton Buzzard bypass A505/A4146 collision analysis, what’s the council doing to improve safety for drivers and when will this information be publicly available?” he inquired.

Executive member for finance and highways and Independent Aspley and Woburn councillor John Baker replied: “The council is looking into this.

“You’ve raised it at the last meeting and your colleagues in Leighton Buzzard have been lighting a fire underneath me about this particular subject.

“Officers have started to liaise with (contractor) Milestone Infrastructure to consider solutions. We’re hoping to produce a plan in the New Year, but anything that happens is dependent on the capital programme.

“The kind of thinking is hatching to reduce the temptation of it appearing like a three-lane road, because of the width of the carriageways. There are various ideas being thought out around the way the traffic approaches the roundabout at one end, and to narrow the lanes in the area where the accidents have happened.

“You as a local member will be briefed and I’m happy to have a meeting to show where they’ve got to when they’re further ahead into the plans, as well as looking at the (available) capital funding.”

Councillor Spicer explained: “I raised this with the previous portfolio holder in February and it’s only now we’re starting to look at that data.

“Can we expect in April, at the CBC traffic management meeting, a detailed proposal for improving it, especially at the Tilsworth and Eaton Bray junction, because this is so dangerous and really important.”

Councillor Baker added: “The good news is I’m making something happen. I’d hope we can bring forward a proposal, at least for you to consider, by April.

“If funding is available in the capital programme for next year, what we’re talking about is a realistic timeline. As for the specifics of the junction, I’m sure those points will be taken on board.”

A petition was presented to a traffic management meeting in January 2023, where data analysed by previous CBC highways contractor Ringway Jacobs was also discussed.

It followed a petition with almost 3,700 signatures, which appeared online after a fatality along a section of the road. Efforts to trace the organiser proved unsuccessful, so Leighton-Linslade town councillors decided to submit their own version to the local authority.

There were about 50 personal injury accidents along this route from April 2016 to March 2022, CBC’s then assistant director highways Gary Powell confirmed.