PLANS for a £1.5m roundabout to improve safety at a notorious Norfolk accident blackspot have taken a step forward after money for the work was agreed.

PLANS for a £1.5m roundabout to improve safety at a notorious Norfolk accident blackspot have taken a step forward after money for the work was agreed.

Norfolk County Council agreed funding for the roundabout to replace the existing A140 Pulham crossroads at its budget fixing meeting on Monday.

Work is due to start in September and it is hoped it will be completed by the end of the financial year in March 2009.

The work will be carried out by the county council and is largely being funded through its local transport plan.

Local villagers have complained that they have to play “Russian roulette” each time they use the treacherous junction which is a designated a high-risk accident site.

The scheme - originally planned to coincide with the building of the Long Stratton bypass and improvements to Hempnall crossroads, which has yet to win government funding - has been given top priority for 2008/2009 by county highways officials who have spent about £40,000 on

design work.

Developing the roundabout

will involve the purchase of

land in Pulham Market and adjoining Tivetshall to enable the widening and realignment of the existing road layout. The proposals include a new south-bound lay-by to accommodate a bus stop.

Adrian Gunson, county council cabinet member for planning and transportation, welcomed the funding decision. “This is a

step forward. I am very pleased,” he said. “It is the biggest

capital scheme planned for this year. It is good news for local people.”

Beverley Spratt, county councillor for Tivetshall, said that he had been working on the project for four years and described the scheme as a “huge benefit” to the people of south Norfolk and all the motorists using the A140.

Each day about 15,000 vehicles pass the crossroads on the

A140, many exceeding the 60mph speed limit as they climb or descend the junction on a winding hill.

In 2005 the Mercury

revealed how transport chiefs decided a roundabout was the

best means of tackling the

Pulham accident blackspot in

1996 only to drop it because of

cost.