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Newbury MP calls for new A34 slip road safety signs

Patrick O'Hagan
BBC Berkshire political reporter
BBC A smiling Lee Dillon, the MP for Newbury, wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and striped blue and gold tie. He's standing in open green fields with a low hedge behind him.BBC
The Newbury MP Lee Dillon wants new signs put on some A34 slip roads to improve safety

An MP is calling for new safety signs to be put on the slip roads leading from two villages on to one of the South's busiest A roads.

Lee Dillon said such signs would make the roads near East Ilsley and Beedon easier to navigate while more expensive, long-term solutions were drawn up.

While pleased that some stretches of the A34 have recently been resurfaced, the Liberal Democrat MP for Newbury said he is hoping to get a bill through Parliament to make the roads safer.

National Highways, which is responsible for the road, said it takes safety very seriously.

It said it expected work to make improvements on the A34 southbound, East Ilsley, which started last month, will finish on Monday.

Two sections of safety barrier on the southbound verge area are also being upgraded, and a new section will be installed in the gap to join the existing sections together.

A shot taken through a car's windscreen as the driver pulls out onto the A34 from a slip road heading south towards Newbury
A Berkshire MP says a slip road onto the A34 needs redesigning to make it safer

The Newbury MP made his comments as part of a wide-ranging interview with BBC Radio Berkshire breakfast presenter Phil Mercer.

He said one of the hot topics he was dealing with locally is the trialing of a longer no-go zone for vehicles wanting to drive through the town centre at night.

West Berkshire Council has banned cars from going through the town centre between 10:00 and 23:00. Previously the roads were only closed until 18:00.

While this is only a trial, Dillon said he thinks making the town centre car free for longer will make Newbury a more attractive place at night.

Though he said it was ultimately for local people to decide whether the trial should become permanent or not.

Lee Dillon MP: 'Quick wins for the A34'

Dillon also talked of his frustration that the hospital where he was born world in 1983 will not be rebuilt until 2037 at the very earliest.

The hospital, on Craven Road in Reading, was set to be replaced under the last government's new hospitals programme.

However, this has been delayed as the current government says the previous plan was not affordable.

A year on from being voted in, Lee Dillon, like all MPs, has a lot on his plate. An avid football fan and Friday night player himself, he says the game gives him an escape from the pressures of the job.

While he says it's important that MPs of all parties work together wherever possible to improve the country's fortunes there's at least one politician and fellow football fan he might struggle to find common ground with.

For while the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is a renowned Arsenal supporter, Newbury's Dillon is a life-long Manchester United fan.