Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has given the strongest hint yet that the long-delayed dualling of the A1 in her Northumberland constituency could be back on the agenda.
Ms Trevelyan campaigned to upgrade the A1 in north Northumberland before entering Parliament, but despite a promise in 2014 from then Prime Minister David Cameron to spend nearly £300m on dualling a stretch of the road between Morpeth and Ellingham, the project has stalled.
Hopes that the scheme would finally happen received a setback earlier this year when then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps put off a decision until December. But it was hoped that Ms Trevelyan’s appointment to succeed him as Transport Secretary last month would be a boost for the scheme, and the project was included in a list of infrastructure projects the Government wanted to “accelerate” as part of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini Budget’.
