SAFETY camera sites are to be incorporated into a scheme to improve road safety at a notorious accident blackspot that has claimed three lives in five years.

West Mercia police will be able to position mobile safety cameras at three sites on the A449 between Claines and Ombersley, once the Highways Agency has completed £300,000 road improvements work on the stretch next spring.

The work, expected to take six weeks, will see sections of the southbound carriageway altered to provide a consistent camber across both lanes and anti-skid surfacing placed on the approach to the Claines roundabout.

The Highways Agency also wants to install a vehicle-activated sign - showing a double-bend warning sign with 'slow' beneath - on the southbound approach to Hawford.

Once complete, the scheme will be monitored for 18 months before being reviewed against the measures highlighted in the safety improvement study report published in May, 2004.

"We're confident our scheme will bring improved safety to this stretch of the A449 and that residents will be able to appreciate the improvements once they are completed," said a Highways Agency spokesman.