The plan to improve the A417 bottleneck is reaching the design stage. The road is Gloucestershire’s top traffic blackspot with a terrible record for accidents and congestion. Cheltenham’s previous Lib Dem MP refused to back the scheme, despite the serious implications for his constituents. Now all six of the county’s Conservative MP’s are backing the plan which has led to a commitment from the UK government to push ahead with the £255 million improvement work.