Linda Beardmore area manager for the Thames Valley chamber of commerce said

Linda Beardmore, area manager for the Thames Valley chamber of commerce, said many had been worried about whether the road-link would be a success. But I feel it is vital that all who have it in their power to influence the Highways Authority should do everything possible to ensure that the agency reviews the safety of these junctions before the bypass claims its first fatality.”The bypass scheme had strong local support, surveys showing 90 per cent of residents in favour, and it was backed by businesses, the MP and councils. One resident, the Rev Father John Lewis, who was involved in an accident, said: “I am delighted that local pressure has at last brought us relief from the traffic congestion which has blighted our town for so long. Three weeks ago, Newbury’s main shopping street was clogged with cars and lorries Now it is now full of pedestrians. “Eerie” is the word that crops up among residents, who talk of the unearthly quiet that greeted them when they woke on the morning of 17 November, hours after the road’s undignified opening, held at night to avoid demonstrations.
But in the first month half a dozen motorists have come to grief on its slip roads, complaining they are too short, making it difficult to get up to speed, and that they lack countdown markers. THE NEWBURY bypass – the pounds 100m eight-mile road that triggered some of the Britain’s most violent environmental protests – has transformed life in the Berkshire town within a month of opening, and led to a series of accidents. “We sell this particular policy direct to squaddies themselves and through brokers.

We have intermediaries at the barracks.”However, a 30-day restriction on taking out insurance policies just before the outbreak of a conflict prevents soldiers taking too much of an advantage of the scheme.. Premiums range from pounds 70 a year covering basic loss of kit and injury, to pounds 400 for comprehensive life and accident assurance and kit cover. The company recently stopped charging higher rates to soldiers in the SAS, bomb disposal units and the Parachute Regiment.”The military are quite keen on this. It’s very much a specialist product for the Army,” said a Guardian insurance spokesman.

It pays out if soldiers are killed or injured in battle or on manoeuvres, or if they lose their guns or their kit. The pay staff are qualified to offer advice.”Guardian Insurance, which offers a special forces plan, has 30,000 Army, Navy and Air Force personnel on its books. There’s no obligation to take out cover,” said an MoD spokesman “We get special rates. But insurance brokers have been conducting seminars on insurance for recruits in their barracks “We undertake to give advice to individuals. Twenty British personnel have been killed while on active duty in the past five years.The MoD says that personal insurance is voluntary for soldiers and that no one is being forced to take out policies.