Traffic lights are to be installed at a junction in March where campaigners have called for safety measures following a series of fatal collisions and injury crashes.
The lights at Gaul Road junction will be paid for by developers Canon Kirk who are funding the deal as part of planning permission to build 135 homes.
Developers initially wanted to build a roundabout but last week a Fenland District Council planning committee agreed to their request to change the scheme to traffic lights.
The news has been welcomed by councillor Jan French who said the lights would be installed quicker as they were easier to get up and running than a more time consuming roundabout.
Cllr French said: “We have been pushing the developer to move this forward due to the number of collisions in that area.”
The lights are essential to deal with the expected increase in traffic merging onto the town’s bypass once a total of 200 new homes by three different developers have been built.
They will be welcomed by a Facebook campaign group, spearheaded by mum of four Collette Arnold, who organised a door to door petition at the beginning of the year calling for improved safety measures.
The first developer to build on land at Gaul Road is Canon Kirk with 135 homes, the second is Langwith with 52 homes and the third is Gaul Developments LLP with 13 to be built on an offshoot from Oxbow Crescent.
Cambridgeshire County Council says the A141 bypass plays a strategic role in March and they want to make sure vehicles flows freely so that junction delays are minimised.
No objections were received for the lights plan which was modelled on a future-proof model of a maximum of 300 homes in the Gaul Road area.
A roundabout deal was struck with Cannon Kirk to be built after the 50th home is occupied, or within two years of development starting.
Development began in 2010 so a junction improvement scheme, is now overdue.
The traffic light approval comes days before construction firm Langwith buried a time capsule with children from Burrowmoor School to mark the start of its 52-home build on the opposite side of the road to the Canon Kirk development.
The Langwith and Sanctuary Housing time capsule burial marked the start of construction work at Gaul Road.
Work is expected to be finished by Spring 2015.
Taking part were Burrowmoor pupils, the Town Crier of March councillor Bernard Keane, councillor Peter Murphy, Fenland District Council’s Cabinet Member responsible for environment and growth and representatives from Sanctuary Group and Langwith.
Three pupils helped to bury the capsule on the site of its £1.4 million housing development.
The capsule, which has been filled by Key Stage 2 pupils, contains a number of artefacts that represent present life in March.
Housing and care provider Sanctuary Group is developing a mix of two, three and four bed family homes, 10 of which are available as shared ownership and 42 as affordable rent.
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