A MAJOR road safety scheme costing more than £350,000 looks set to be approved today after an Ipswich girl was fatally injured in the area. Kiara Stevenson Mann died on August 14 last year after she was in a collision with a coach while cycling along Landseer Road.

A MAJOR road safety scheme costing more than £350,000 looks set to be approved today after an Ipswich girl was fatally injured in the area.

Kiara Stevenson Mann died on August 14 last year after she was in a collision with a coach while cycling along Landseer Road.

Now the traffic island close to where she died will be upgraded as part of the scheme which will cost £355,000 in total.

Dying just a few days before her sixth birthday, Kiara's death sparked a major concern in the community over the dangers of Landseer Road.

Ron Crane, who lives right where Kiara died, started a petition and gathered more than 70 signatures demanding safety measures and speed restrictions be implemented on the busy road.

After receiving the petition on April 5 this year, Ipswich Borough Council now looks set to grant the major safety improvement scheme.

The council has already allocated part of the liveability fund to put in a set of traffic lights near Reynolds Road to replace the existing traffic island where Kiara, of Ireland Road, died.

Mr Crane, of Landseer Road, said: "My brother was killed on almost the same spot in 1949.

"And when Kiara died outside my house last year it sparked it all off again. I knew I had to do something so started the petition.

"I am pleased the traffic island will be pulled down and replaced with a proper crossing because I have watched many people almost get run over. There are two homes for the elderly in the area whose residents have to use it too.

"I think this is one of the most dangerous roads in Ipswich and I just hope all of the work does go ahead and people's lives are saved."

Councillor John Mowles has backed the residents in their bid to make the road safer.

He said: "Making the road safer was a priority for the area and that is why it was important to spend the liveability funding in this way.

"I just hope the rest of the scheme will go ahead and that funding will be found for it. I will be supporting the residents in this scheme."

The rest of the scheme will be discussed at a council's executive meeting tonight and if it gets the go-ahead the council will start applying for grants and funding from various bodies to gather the amount needed.

The scheme includes two entry gateways, one by Holbrook Road and the other along 640metres, near Reynolds Road.

Three further sets of traffic lights, will be put in, all including cycle crossings, near Holbrook Road, Hogarth Road and Raeburn Road.

All crossings will have a reduced width to improve crossing safety and narrow the road to reduce the speed of approaching vehicles.

Other parts of the scheme include improved road surfacing and bollards and railings.

n. What do you think of the improvements? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk