Labour accused of 'contempt' for North East after A1 dualling scrapped – after £67m already spent
by Daniel Holland · ChronicleLiveLabour has been accused of having “turned its back on the North East" after the decision to axe the dualling of the A1 in Northumberland – with £67 million having already been spent on it.
A scrapping of the long-debated scheme to upgrade 13 miles of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham was confirmed in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget on Wednesday, with the project deemed “unfunded and unaffordable”. The decision comes after decades of campaigning, multiple promises to improve the busy route, and repeated setbacks.
Richard Wearmouth, the Conservative deputy leader of Northumberland County Council, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Wednesday that the move was “incredibly disappointing”, especially given the vast sum of money already spent preparing for the dualling to go ahead. He said: “£67 million had been invested by the last Government on land acquisition, gaining planning permission and completing design works.
“The project was literally shovel ready. There was money available from the scrapping of HS2, and from the huge tax increases heaped on hard working households across our region by the Chancellor in today's budget. But yet again Labour turned its back on the North East and took voters here for granted as they always do.
"The scheme is of vital importance to our local and regional economy, it would strengthen the union in terms of better links to Scotland and it would significantly improve safety for Northumberland residents.
"I am in the process of contacting National Highways to seek immediate discussions to ensure the work done to date is not squandered. Needless to say our Conservative-run council will campaign tirelessly to get this project back up and running at the earliest opportunity and we will be seeking to have finishing this work as a firm manifesto commitment in any forthcoming general election.”
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the former transport secretary and Berwick MP, accused Labour of “treating the North East with contempt”. She added: “£10 billion on train driver and doctor inflation-busting wage hikes… £200 million of that could have gone to infrastructure critical to growth.”
However, independent Northumberland councillor Georgina Hill said Labour deserved criticism but that the Tories had “no right to crow” after failing to deliver the A1 dualling throughout 14 years in power. She accused Rishi Sunak’s administration of having “treated voters like fools” by promising to finally press ahead with the scheme just before the General Election.
The cancellation of the project was welcomed by some, however. The North East Public Transport Users Group (NEPTUG) called it “good news for sustainable transport”, with campaigners having argued that increasing the capacity of the A1 would result in more traffic and more harmful emissions.
A NEPTUG spokesperson added: “A much better use of public money would be investing in local bus and rail services in Northumberland to help reduce traffic congestion on the A1. Safety can be improved without dualling at a much lower cost.”
North East mayor Kim McGuinness had backed a dualling of the A1 all the way up to Scotland in her election manifesto and the scheme forms part of a multi-billion pound vision to radically improve the region’s transport infrastructure. A spokesperson for the North East Combined Authority said it was “disappointed” by the Government’s decision to drop the scheme and pledged to “explore what options might be available to local leaders to support the ambition to dual the A1”.
David Smith, the newly-elected Labour MP for North Northumberland, said he was "disappointed and frustrated" by the news, but blamed the Conservatives for the dualling plan's downfall. He said: "Despite repeated announcements, there has never been £290m for dualling the A1. Instead we spent years waiting on unfunded and unaffordable promises. How can you build a road without the money to do it?"
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