Thank-you gifts to community as work on bottleneck junction comes to an end

Receiving the cheque at the newly-improved junction are Amanda Mauro and Steve Thatcher, front, with, back row from left, Adrian Oulds from contractor Carnell and National Highways’ Dean Holloway and Dave Marlow

As work to transform the A45/A6 Chowns Mill roundabout has reached its conclusion, those working on the National Highways’ project have taken part in one final initiative to help out community groups.

Contractors working on the Northamptonshire roundabout improvements have given up their time in a series of projects intended to ‘give back’ to the local community while the work is taking place.

The latest effort saw a cheque for £710, donated by contractors and workers, handed over to the local foodbanks of Raunds, Rushden and Irthlingborough and the district branch of the Royal British Legion.

Amanda Mauro from the East Northants Community Services Foodbank and Steve Thatcher from the RBL visited the site to receive the donation – just as the final trees were being planted to finish off the £24 million scheme.

Since work began on the junction improvements in February last year, those working on the scheme have:

• Supplied more than £3,000 worth of items to three local food banks last Christmas.
• Tackled dangerous and unauthorised parking at Stanwick Lakes by painting double yellow lines on the driveway to manage parking and stop vehicles backing up along the busy A45
• Supplied fencing to Stanwick Lakes following an arson attack
• Donated three ornate, carved benches to Higham Ferrers to complement a Timber Trim Trail being created by the town council at Castle Fields.
• Provided Stanwick Voluntary Group with £1,700 worth of trees for the pocket park
• Donated cones to schools to help keep pupils in bubbles and safe during the Covid pandemic
• Given £3,000 to help young people at risk of becoming involved in violence or gangs to benefit from the work of the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV)
• Ran a schools competition to design three large, carved chairs which were installed at Nightingale Way park in Higham Ferrersfor all to enjoy

National Highways Project Manager, Dean Holloway, said:

“The extensive improvements we have made at Chowns Mill roundabout mean that traffic is now flowing more freely through the junction and pedestrians can cross safely thanks to the new traffic lights installed.

“But we know that carrying out such major improvements can be disruptive for road users and local people while the work takes place which is why we like to ‘give back’ to communities where possible.

“We have been very fortunate that our contractors have been both extremely generous and enthusiastic in carrying out initiatives to support the communities and local people who have been so understanding while this work was carried out.”

One of the benches donated to Higham Ferrers

To tackle problems of congestion and frequent collisions, National Highways have created a ‘half hamburger’ roundabout at the Chowns Mill junction and widened the roads approaching the roundabout to create extra capacity for traffic.

Pedestrians and cyclists can also use the junction more safely thanks to new traffic lights and improvements that have been introduced.