TWO Cheshire roads have been named as among the worst in the UK. The A537 linking Macclesfield with Buxton and the A534 Nantwich to the Welsh border feature in a study which gives ratings to more than 800 UK roads.

An eight-mile stretch of road in the Scottish Highlands has been named as Britain's most treacherous route,

The AA describes the A889, linking the A9 to the A86 near Dalwhinnie, as "undulating, twisty and quiet".

For the survey, stretches of main roads were rated according to their length, the number of cars using them and the number of serious accidents.

The A889 came out nearly twice as dangerous as the eight miles of the A537 linking Macclesfield, Cheshire, to Buxton, Derbyshire.

In third place was a 2.5-mile stretch of the A12 linking Romford, Essex, to the M25.

According to the AA's figures, on average 62 serious or fatal accidents occurred for every billion kilometres travelled between 1997 and 1999.

The A889's accident rate was 14 times the average and included four serious injury crashes during the period. Part of the problem is the road's low usage, with just 310 cars per day travelling on it on an average day.

The figures are the result of a study in several European countries called EuroRAP, which has given ratings to more than 800 major UK roads and another 2,000 in Holland, Spain and Sweden.

A five-mile stretch between Bristol and the Severn Bridge (the M49), is Britain's safest road, followed by the eight-mile M45 from the M1 to Coventry.

The UK's 10 worst roads are: A889, between A9 and A86 near Dalwhinnie, A537 Macclesfield to Buxton, A12 Romford to M25, A4137 between A49 and A40 near Ross-on-Wye, A628 Penistone to A616, A1001 at Hatfield, A534 Nantwich to the Welsh border, A533 Runcorn to A56, A682 Long Preston (A65) to M65, A1306 Aveley to M25.