Major stakeholders and local residents came together to discuss what can be done with the busy road’s safety issues for Lincolnshire.
More than 100 local residents travelled to the Barn Hotel at Marston near Grantham on Wednesday for an open-floor public meeting about safety issues on the A1.
Held by Grantham cllr, and executive member for Highways at LCC, Richard Davies, the meeting also had contributions and answers from a wide range of transport experts including Lincolnshire County Council Highways, Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, Lincolnshire Police and National Highways.
The meeting was scheduled to be held for two hours but such was the impassioned level of questioning and exchanges during the any-questions part of the evening that organisers extended the time by another 30 minutes.
Speaking after the event, cllr Davies said: “Firstly, I want to extend my absolute gratitude to everyone who made the effort to come to this event. There were many brilliant discussions, points raised and ideas discussed with real local contributions made. I am delighted that we were able to pull this together with such a lot of expertise on hand to listen to questions and take those local points of view on board.
“As the local Highways authority, we don’t look after the A1 – that’s a road under the control and development of National Highways – but as local residents ourselves, we equally as frustrated as everyone who came tonight by a lack of real action to solve these safety issues.
“Tonight was all about bringing local people, road experts and National Highways together for a full-on, frank and open conversation about the big problems – and what could be done about them in the future. To hear from the LRSP and Lincolnshire Police about safety issues, statistics, first-hand experiences of dealing with problems and what day-to-day life is like on the A1 was eye-opening.
“There are no easy answers to any of this, but we can be in no doubt that everyone involved has taken away ideas and the valuable, local points raised about that main route through Lincolnshire. It feels like we’ve really started something here tonight that could have a positive impact for the future of the area.”
National Highways’ Phil Shaw outlined the plan to close the majority of A1 crossing points on the stretch of the road that passes through the county.
Speaking after the meeting he said: “It’s great to actually speak to those affected directly and get their honest opinions.
“I think we’ve got a lot of feedback here tonight that has been very useful, and it’s been great to be able to address a lot of questions like this. It’s not as straightforward as people might think with the A1 and a lot of that comes down to funding and working out the best solutions for the area.
“There are much more costly alternatives to other ways to shorten diversions and change particular areas that needed explaining and addressing. Our plan to close gaps on the A1 is one of the solutions that will have a real impact on safety.
“We will take away a lot of what we heard here tonight. This has been a valuable thing for us to do and we are appreciative of the views of everyone who attended.”
The slides from the event are available here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yjuikscq2t08gm1w5deqq/A1-Safety-Event-Slides-2025.pdf?rlkey=sp4tmu4jgjlcit9tqxl57acq8&dl=0
If you couldn’t attend, there’s still time to share your views online at Let’s Talk Lincolnshire
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