Chamber highlights its concerns over delays to A47 improvements to Highways England
Jonathan Cage, the Vice President of Norfolk Chamber and Managing Director of Create Consulting Engineers, represented the Norfolk Chamber at the recent meeting of the A47 Alliance. The meeting included a presentation from the Highways England team of AMEY/AECOM, on the feasibility work that has been undertaken to date and the anticipated timeframes for delivery of the improvements to the A47.
Highways England are responsible for the delivery of the improvements to the A47 and they outlined that the three main schemes, which are centred around Norwich, including Burlingham, North Tuddenham and Thickthorn, were all effectively programmed to start work in 2020, with an approximate cost of £300m.
Commenting on the Highways England presentation, Jonathan Cage said:
“Highways England advised that they had assessed each of the schemes to determine whether a Development Consent Order would be required. They acknowledged that a lot of work had been previously undertaken on Burlingham, and that a scheme had been close to being started in the past.”
“However they stated that they needed to review the details and determine whether or not the route was still the ‘preferred route’. It was also essential that a full detailed evidence base was available to back up any future scheme submissions, to ensure that they would stand up to detailed scrutiny at future Inquiry.”
“Highways England believed that this exercise would be completed by October 2015, at which stage they would be able to advise which, if any of the schemes, could be brought forward earlier for implementation. The same criteria would also apply to the Vauxhall roundabout and Gapton Hall roundabout improvements in Great Yarmouth.”
On the length of delay in commencing the improvement works along the A47, Jonathan said:
“I raised the Chamber’s concerns about the delays, especially with respect to Burlingham, and asked why did Highways England need to review the proposals again?” He noted that “it was very unlikely that the traffic flows had changed and the only major thing that had changed since 2006 was that more people had lost their lives.”
With regard to possible severe disruptions whilst the improvement works were being undertaken, Jonathan said:
“I also raised a concern about the potential for all three Norwich schemes to be progressed at the same time, which would effectively result in access to Norwich from all directions being severely disrupted for about 18 months – something that would not be acceptable to the business community. I was informed that it was unlikely that all three would be progressed simultaneously, which would then potentially lead to a further delay on one of the schemes.”
Roger Foulger, the Chair of the A47 Alliance, also highlighted to Highways England, the occasions that both the local MPs and the Norfolk Chamber had written to express their concern at possible delays. Jonathan Cage said: “It was clear that both the MPs and the Chamber correspondence had had an impact on Highways England – however the Norfolk business community, together with the A47 Alliance needs to continue to lobby hard for the improvements to the A47 to be delivered as soon as possible.”
