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‘The cash is there’ – Minister insists Government can be trusted on …

A Tory minister has insisted his Government can be trusted to deliver on the latest promise to dual the A1 in Northumberland[1], despite decades of setbacks.

The long-debated dualling of a section of the road between Morpeth and Ellingham was named this week among the raft of projects that will be funded using £36bn of cash that would have been spent on the scrapped northern leg of HS2. That announcement came just a few weeks after a decision on whether to approve the project had been pushed back by a further nine months, the fourth time that verdict had been delayed.

But there remains scepticism over whether the project will go ahead, almost a decade after then-chancellor George Osborne rubber-stamped a £290m scheme[2] to dual the same stretch of road in his 2014 autumn statement. A firm commitment to deliver another major North East project, the reopening of the Leamside[3] railway line, was removed from Rishi Sunak’s Network North programme less than 24 hours after being announced – but the funding for the A1 dualling does remain listed.

Roads minister Richard Holden told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the availability of the former HS2 cash was “the key thing” that means the A1 scheme can move forward at last. However, a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the works is still yet to be signed off, with the latest deadline for it having been set for June 2024.

Asked why people should believe the Government’s latest pledges, given the A1 dualling’s storied history of delays and the controversial scrapping of HS2’s Birmingham to Manchester section, Mr Holden said: “That £36bn, which had already been earmarked for those projects, can now be used for other schemes. In the past, it has always been ‘is this going to be part of the Spending Review, is this going to be part of the RIS upgrade programme, or the next Network Rail settlement?’

“This money has already been earmarked for transport funding, so transferring it across is a much simpler situation.” Mr Holden said that the nine month delay to the DCO decision is a “maximum for the planning decision, it is not a date that has to happen”.

Minister for Roads and Local Transport, Richard Holden MP, on board the brand-new Class 555 Stadler Metro train
Minister for Roads and Local Transport, Richard Holden MP, on board the brand-new Class 555 Stadler Metro train

Defending the Government’s record in the North East, the North West Durham MP added: “We have already seen upgrades to the A19, we have already seen the western road around Newcastle being upgraded, we have got spades in the ground around Birtley on the A1, we have the A66 progressing well with its design stages with cash already earmarked for it. Look at what we are already delivering, the biggest investment in North East transport in a very long time – certainly when you include the 66. And also look at what we have done with the trains on the Metro, the first time we have seen major investment there in 40 years, and that has all come to pass.

“This cash which is now there for the A1… the key thing on all of these things is that you can design and work them up, but at some point you have to have the funding there. This funding which was earmarked for another project is now being moved to it, so the funding envelope is there.

“Obviously with the DCO as part of the pipeline, there is a planning decision that I can’t really comment further on. But the cash is clearly there for this project.”

But Coun Isabel Hunter, a long-term A1 dualling campaigner who represents the Berwick West with Ord ward on Northumberland County Council, said on Wednesday that she “won’t believe it until the spades are in the ground and the diggers are on site”.

References

  1. ^ Northumberland (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
  2. ^ rubber-stamped a £290m scheme (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
  3. ^ Leamside (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)

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