Juggernaut safety fears at Great Barton, near Bury St Edmunds, spark resident’s call for village bypass
‘Great Barton needs a bypass’ – that is the resounding plea from a resident who fears heavy traffic is an accident waiting to happen.
The A143 runs from Bury St Edmunds to Great Yarmouth – passing along The Street, in Great Barton.
Last week, villager Keith Allchin, who lives near The Street’s traffic light-controlled pedestrian crossing, noticed the lights were being repaired after being hit by a lorry.
He said: “Walking along The Street is like being in a war zone. Lorries are going past you at supposedly 30mph but it often feels like more. If another lorry happens to be coming the other way then each lorry is probably a foot away from the pavement and anyone who is on that pavement.
“Several times a day there are very young children – sometimes unaccompanied – using these pavements to get to school. If a lorry can hit the traffic lights it could hit a pedestrian.
“I know they have been talking about a bypass for Great Barton for years but nothing ever gets done about it. With all the extra houses being built and the new industrial estates being developed between Bury and Great Yarmouth the situation on the A143 is only going to get worse.”
Mr Allchin said he was tempted to stage a protest by parking his own car on the main road – however felt this would disrupt too many people.
“The lorries are really frightening going past you. It is like having a footpath on the side of the A14. In my mind it is an accident waiting to happen, which would be horrific.
“They have been talking about a bypass for 50 years and it never comes to more than talk.”
Mr Allchin believes a bypass could be built from ‘Hungry Hill ‘ – the stretch of the A143 between Ixworth and the Bunbury Arms – to go behind Conyers Green and join Mill Road the other side of Great Barton, before reaching Barton Bottom/A134 Fornham roundabout.
“That would take all the heavy traffic away. It would be the solution,” he added.
Maggie Dunn, chair of Great Barton Parish Council, said bypass plans had been dropped by highways bosses ‘years ago’ – however traffic problems in the village were an increasing problem which had been exacerbated by A14 diversions.
She said the parish council had funded two vehicle-activated speed signs, was funding new white wooden ‘gates’ to highlight village boundaries and the speed limit, and had repeatedly asked Suffolk County Council to clear overgrown footpaths.
“We need something to sort the traffic out, but where do you put a bypass?” she said.
“Planners need to think about what is going on in villages along the A143 when they agree plans. When you look along the A143 to Diss and all the new houses that have gone in – all those extra cars have go to go somewhere.”
Cllr Dunn added that congestion into Bury backed up through Great Barton during the morning rush hour, while in the afternoon congestion heading out of Bury built up in The Street between 3.30pm and 6pm.
Suffolk County Council highways was approached for comment.
