NEW metal safety barriers have replaced crumbling wooden fencing along a 130ft long stretch of the Sixteen Foot Bank following a �20,000 ‘makeover’.

Cambridgeshire County Council says the improvements are part and parcel of routine maintenance.

“We had some money in our road maintenance budget to replace old post and rail barriers,” said a spokesman. “As and when we can we are replacing these older barriers with more modern state-of-the-art barriers.”

The council says a high proportion of the cost involved is not visible since “a lot of the money is spent on foundations for these”.

County engineer John Richards said the work on the Sixteen Foot – near to Broad Alder Farm bridge at Stonea - was “part of a county-wide programme to upgrade and improve safety barrier as necessary where it exists around the network.

Graham Chappell, organiser of the Fenland Road Safety Campaign, described the installation as “quite impressive, a very good piece of work with the top-of-the-range crash cushion end, but possibly not quite finished at the bridge parapet end.

“It really does confirm, though, how possible it is to put effective safety barriers in place on the Sixteen Foot and similar roads, in case anyone was still in doubt.”

On April 27 Mr Chappell will be heading the delegation to a meeting of councillors and officials to pitch for joint funding of barriers at Bedlam Bridge, near March.

Mr Chappell set up his campaign following the death of schoolgirl Charlotte Walker and he hopes the money raised by the campaign will be match funded by the county council to pay for the barriers there.