Mayoral authority to work with council on alternative funding solutions for Blyth Relief Road
North East bosses are seeking new money to revive plans for the Blyth Relief Road, after the Government declined to fund the project.
County leaders in Northumberland have long been pursuing a £55 million road scheme to relieve congestion around Blyth, particularly on the A193 Cowpen Road and A1061 Laverock Hall Road.
But it recently emerged that the Department for Transport will not be paying for the scheme, three years after former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak included it in his promised Network North transport investment package.
The decision sparked fury across the political spectrum in Northumberland, especially after Labour ministers’ previous move to cancel the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham dualling in 2024.
Jonathan Balies, the North East mayoral authority’s assistant director of transport programmes and investment planning, told a meeting in Morpeth that the mayor’s office would “work with Northumberland officers to build the case for funding opportunities where there may be some”.
Richard Wearmouth, the deputy leader of the Conservative-run county council, added that he was “grateful for the combined authority helping us find a funding solution, now that funding appears to be off the table from the Government”.
The relief road scheme would involve the realignment and dualling of the existing Laverock Hall Road to provide a direct dual carriageway connection between the A192 Three Horseshoes Roundabout and the A193 South Beach.
The DfT has said that the previous Tory government “did not fund” projects including the Blyth Relief Road despite its commitments and that it now “had to make difficult decisions on a number of road projects and can only progress schemes that are good value for money for taxpayers”.
Cllr Wearmouth also told an overview and scrutiny committee meeting that local leaders were “really pushing on all fronts” to get the A1 dualling back on the agenda in Whitehall, following the spate of fatal crashes this year.
He also told colleagues that it was “difficult to justify” a full dualling of the A69 road which connects Newcastle to Cumbria.
However, he said the council did want to see junction improvements made and more sections of dual carriageway introduced to provide passing points, to avoid the A1’s problem of “driver frustration and people taking too many chances to make an overtake”.