The £50million M49 junction-to-nowhere is still two years away from opening – a whole five years after it was built, according to metro mayor Dan Norris. Mr Norris says he is “absolutely furious” at the “colossal mistake” between officials at South Gloucestershire Council and National Highways – formerly Highways England – that has left the dead-end motorway roundabout near Avonmouth, completed in 2019, unconnected to the local road network.
But despite the Labour regional mayor providing a timescale for the saga to be finally resolved, the council says it cannot confirm a programme of work because it is “technically complex” and the “best engineering solutions” still need to be decided. It says that to build the link road, it “needs to obtain privately owned land” and that it is working on this while designing the highway.
Mr Norris, however, also revealed that £1million allocated last February by the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), which he now heads, to try to resolve a land dispute that has left the link road unfinished was done so “incorrectly” by his predecessor, Conservative Tim Bowles. Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol’s John Darvall on Monday, May 16, the West of England mayor said: “It was the previous mayor who said he would make £1million available but it wasn’t in his powers, to be honest, so that was incorrect.
Read more: 'Important step forwards' for dead-end M49 junction in Bristol
“Basically this was something that happened before the West of England Combined Authority was created. As far as I can see, and I’ve checked with my officers and with the local authorities concerned, the entire sorting of this is down to South Gloucestershire Council and National Highways to get on with it.
“Plus of course there is that issue of that piece of land, about who owns it and how it should be used, and that is in a legal dispute. That’s where we are.” He said South Gloucestershire Council’s Tory leader Cllr Toby Savage had shared some of the details with him in confidence which he was “honour bound not to break” because there was a “great deal of sensitivity around it”.
But Mr Norris said £50million spent on a junction next to a business distribution park, including Amazon, Tesco and Lidl, that did not actually connect to it was “nonsensical”. The metro mayor said: “Isn’t it terrible for our region that we have all this infrastructure expenditure and for want of a decent bit of foresight and planning we don’t have a motorway junction that could work and alleviate those pressures on local communities around that area. Terrible.
“I am absolutely furious about it. I have made that very clear to the people I’ve spoken to, but pinning down who is actually responsible is impossible.” Asked when the junction was finally likely to open, he said: “There is a date, and I think it’s within the next couple of years.
“Isn’t it amazing that South Gloucestershire Council got themselves into a pickle where we still don’t have a junction for another two years when it’s already been built and it cost a lot of money. Isn’t that crazy?” A South Gloucestershire Council spokesperson said: “We are working with the Department for Transport and National Highways to deliver the M49 link road and unlock the significant benefits that it will bring to South Gloucestershire, local communities and the wider region.
“The link road is needed to connect the new motorway junction at the Western Approach Distribution Park. The public benefits of delivering such a connection are significant and include: realising the economic potential of Severnside and the wider Avonmouth Severnside Enterprise Area; relieving congestion on the local highway network; improving road safety; and ensuring the investment already made by National Highways building the new M49 Junction is realised.
“In order to build the link, we need to obtain privately owned land and are currently working on this while progressing with the design of the new road. We are not able to confirm a programme of work at present, as the scheme is technically complex and the best engineering solutions need to be determined.
“We are looking to deliver the scheme in the shortest reasonable timescales and will keep the community and stakeholders updated as the project progresses.” The council has set up a project webpage to keep people informed which is here.
Last October the local authority’s cabinet made a decision behind closed doors that it said represented an “important step forwards” in ending the deadlock over who is responsible for connecting the roundabout to the roads, but released few details.
