Parish councils unite in call for dualling of the A1 in Northumberland

They have written to Berwick MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan and called on her to press Mark Harper, her successor as Transport Secretary, to give the green light for construction work to begin.

A final decision of plans to dual 13 miles of single carriageway between Morpeth and Ellingham is currently on hold until September.

And there is growing concern that the scheme, already delayed twice, could be shelved due to financial pressures.

Cllr Guy Renner-Thompson, chairman of Belford Parish Council and Bamburgh ward county councillor, said: “The delay in dualling the A1 is unacceptable and dangerous.

"The 16 parish councils in this letter represent thousands of people in north Northumberland right down at the grassroots level who are desperate to see the road upgraded.

"Anne-Marie can use this letter as another tool to bash heads down in Whitehall to get the project underway.”

The appeal, coordinated by Belford Parish Council, has been signed by parish councils in Adderstone with Lucker, Ancroft, Beadnell, Branxton, Cornhill, Doddington, Duddo, Ford, Horncliffe, Kirknewton, Lowick, Norham, North Sunderland, Ord and Tillside.

Belford Parish Council clerk Isabel Hunter, in the letter to Ms Trevelyan, writes: ‘Belford Parish Council is writing to you on behalf of 16 north Northumberland parish councils to raise our disappointment that the consideration for the next phase of the dualling of the A1 has been paused until at least September 2023, which in turns means even if the green light is given to allow the next phase to commence works may not start until at least 2024 if not later.

‘The national press has reported that up to date £67m has been spent on future phases of dualling the A1, however, to date there has been no progress.

‘The parish councils would like you as our MP for the Berwick constituency to put pressure on the Transport Secretary to revisit the proposals and progress the schemes to the construction phase.’

The letter goes on to state the economic and safety benefits of dualling the route, preferably all the way to the Scottish border.

The parish councils say it would ‘benefit and support local businesses as well as attract new businesses to north Northumberland’ and ‘attract additional tourism to the area’.

They also point out the ‘numerous accidents on this road over the years, which has included the loss of life and life changing injuries’.

It was December 2014 when then Prime Minister David Cameron pledged £290m to complete the dualling of the road between Morpeth and Ellingham.

Hopes that the project would finally get the thumbs up were raised under Liz Truss’s brief tenure as Prime Minister when Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s now infamous mini budget contained a list of infrastructure projects across the country the government wanted to get started on by the end of this year, including the dualling of the A1.

However, with Ms Truss’s resignation and a new set of ministers, the plans remain in limbo once again.

If approved, the scheme would involve dualling eight miles of the A1 to a dual carriageway between Morpeth and Felton, as well as a further five miles between Alnwick and Ellingham.