North East leaders are pleading with the Government to finally sign off on the long-awaited dualling of the A1 in Northumberland, after the project was hit with a double delay.
A decision on whether an upgrade of the single-lane section of the major route between Morpeth and Ellingham had been due in January this year, before being pushed back to June and then again by a further six months. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced last month that a decision on widening the 13-mile stretch of the A1 was now due on or before December 5 this year, dashing hopes of work starting this summer.
The postponement came following the publication of Sir Peter Hendy’s Union Connectivity Review, which aired reservations about the scheme and called for a new “multimodal study” of road and other transport links between the North East and Scotland which “could result in much better outcomes than considering specific stretches of individual modes in isolation”. Council leaders were told on Tuesday afternoon that top transport officials in the North East were still pushing the benefits of the dualling to the Department for Transport (DfT) and National Highways.
