Lincolnshire County Council pulls ?27million earmarked for …
A £27 million fund earmarked for a section of Spalding’s controversial relief road has been pulled – with critics now labelling the project as the ‘biggest cul-de-sac in Europe’.
Lincolnshire County Council revealed work on the southern section of the Spalding Western Relief Road is now unlikely to start until 2030 – and says it was forced to move cash earmarked for its construction to other projects due to rising costs.
Plus building work on the northern part of the road – which has been underway since the start of last year – is now delayed and unlikely to be completed until next summer. The opening of the new pedestrian Two Plank Bridge will also now be later than hoped.
The county council, South Holland District Council and Homes England were contributing towards the costs of the road – which was previously estimated to cost £105 million – along with money from developers. The middle section of the road is not funded.
The relief road was designed to run along the western side of Spalding to link Pinchbeck and Spalding Common to help ease congestion in the town centre – which often gets clogged up with traffic, especially when freight trains pass. It is the only idea floated to ease the town’s congestion woes.
District council leader Nick Worth says that the project is ‘far from dead’ and is calling on Network Rail to help stump up some cash to help move the project forward.
Coun Worth said there are opportunities for external Government funding and reflected that it was always going to be a ‘long-term’ project.
He said: “The county have withdrawn the money to pay for rising costs for all the other projects they have going on, but that doesn’t mean that the southern section wont get done at some point along with the bit in the middle.
“I would love to see Network Rail put their hand in their pockets because at the end of the day the most expensive parts of the northern and southern sections are the bridges over the railway lines.”
The news has not surprised the chairman of Spalding and Peterborough Transport Forum, George Scott.
Mr Scott, who also expressed concerns about the lack of infrastructure said: “It is the biggest cul-de-sac in Europe.
“I am not surprise about the relief road, I don’t know if it is good or bad news. What we do worry about is if the road gets built and all of that traffic is going onto Spalding Road.”
South Holland MP Sir John Hayes said: “My views on this are well known and from the beginning I have always thought this was a road to no where unless it provides the relief it was supposed to. If it is not completed, it is going to relieve nothing. There is going to be a lot of further congestion if property is developed nearby then these people are going to use the existing road.
“It should never have gone ahead if you didn’t know it was going to be completed. My experience of these projects are that it will be pushed back still further.”
He said that the money for building the current stretch of road could have been spent on improving the exisiting network.
Sir John added: “I want to support the concept of a relief road – but only if you can guarantee that it is going to be completed.”
Construction work for the northern section of the road, which runs from Spalding Road to the Vernatt’s, and includes the new five arm roundabout. Earlier this year planning permission was granted up to 400 homes on land from Yews Farm, Spalding Road, Pinchbeck.
Coun Richard Davies, executive member for highways, said: “The past three years have been a turbulent time within the highways sector, including costs increases due to Covid; growing inflation rates; and the country entering into the recession we’re currently in.
"Unfortunately, because of these and other issues, we announced during our annual budget meeting in February that we’ve had to re-allocate the £27.8 million of county council funding dedicated to the Spalding Western Relief Road's southern section to help offset increased costs for other major road projects.
“That means it’s unlikely that we start work before 2030 since that’s the earliest we expect to be able to allocate funding towards this phase of the project. However, we'll look at bringing that date closer if external funding can be identified.
“In addition, no funding has yet been allocated or secured for the middle sections of the relief road as these are intended to be built in the long-term, as outline in the South East Lincolnshire Local Plan.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Network Rail receives public funds specifically for the operation and renewal of the railway. We are always keen to work with stakeholders and communities and would be happy to discuss any way we can support the road scheme within the perimeters of our funding rules.”