Funding for Somerset A-road from HS2 cash slammed as ‘cheek’

Councillors have accused the government of “cheek” for saying upgrades to a major A-road would be funded by HS2 — only to offer no more funding that was already planned.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak scrapped the rail project at the Conservative Party Conference in October, announcing that the £36bn set to be spent on the scheme would now be reinvested in “new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country.”

The list of projects to receive funding included long-awaited upgrades to the A38 in Somerset ^[1] — but the news came as a surprise to North Somerset Council, who had not been told in advance that the scheme would be mentioned.

A joint plan for a series of improvements along the A38 from Barrow Gurney to Highbridge by Somerset Council and North Somerset Council was sent to the government as part of the government’s “major road network” scheme to fund improvements. The proposals were given the go-ahead to move to the next stage and an outline business case was submitted in March 2022.

But the councils have been waiting to hear if this has been approved ever since. Now, with money from HS2 apparently earmarked for the scheme, the government has told the councils it can go ahead.

When the council’s bid for the funding from the “major road network” scheme, the funding was proposed to cover 85% of the scheme, with North Somerset contributing 10% of the cost, and Somerset Council — where fewer of the proposed improvements are located — contributing 5%.

Despite the announcement of the HS2 funding, the government is still only offering to fund the same proportion of the scheme. Labour councillor Ciaran Cronnelly slammed this as “cheek” at a meeting of North Somerset Council’s scrutiny panel on transport, climate, and communities on November 30. He said: “This isn’t new money.”

Conservative councillor Terry Porter added: “There’s got to be opportunities to go back and say ‘you promised delivering this money to everyone,’ […] if they have mentioned it and then not given us anything.”

The scheme had been estimated to cost £25.2m when first bid for, but this was re-assessed in December 2022 following the impact of inflation and it is now estimated to cost £30.9m. Independent councillor Steve Bridger warned that costs will have risen since that analysis a year ago. He said: “It could be way way more than £31m.”

Improvements to the A38 proposed in the plan include improved pedestrian and cycling facilities, road safety improvements, and congestion relief at 14 locations along the road.

Due to the delay in having the funding approved, one scheme included in the plan to improve safety and bus accessibility at the junction of Barrow Street by the A38 has already been carried out by North Somerset Council using funding to improve bus services.

References

^{^} included long-awaited upgrades to the A38 in Somerset (www.somersetlive.co.uk)
^{^} HS2 funding for Somerset’s roads will make ‘minimal’ difference (www.somersetlive.co.uk)
^{^} Council to consider proposed changes to derided Somerset seafront (www.somersetlive.co.uk)
^{^} ‘Difficult decisions’ in Somerset as council outlines over £11m of cuts (www.somersetlive.co.uk)