Plans for major revamp of Robin Hood roundabout unveiled

Planned improvements for busy Newbury roundabout include additional lanes

PLANS for a major revamp of Newbury’s Robin Hood roundabout have been unveiled.

The proposals would involve widening the road outside the fire station to create a second lane for Thatcham instead of one.

The council is also proposing to widen the roundabout to five lanes at the end of Shaw Road and install a traffic island to separate the traffic turning left on to the A4 and straight over to the A339 towards Sainsbury’s.

Explaining the proposed changes at the Newbury Vision meeting, the council’s projects manager, Jon Winstanley, said: “At the moment, traffic coming out of Shaw Road is immediately hit by a red light.

“We can unlock that so the traffic coming from Shaw Road can carry on straight through, which significantly reduces the queuing on Shaw Road.”

The two-lane approach to the roundabout from Faraday Road would also be widened to three lanes to improve capacity.

On the Aldi side, the plan is to elongate the two-lane approach to minimise congestion.

A YouTube video showing how the proposed scheme would work, is available to view at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AaEZpReHLAk &feature=youtu.be

No definite date has been set for the proposed works as they are dependent on funding from the north Newbury development – which will see up to 400 new homes built in Donnington.