‘Link road between A47 and M69 needed’
Council leader says it should be part of road plan
A LINK road should be built to connect the M69 and A47 according to the leader of the borough council.
The busy roads run parallel between Leicester and Hinckley, but with no direct link between them.
Councillor Mike Hall is the Conservative leader of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. He said joining up the two major routes should be drawn into Leicestershire’s long-term transport strategy.
He said he thought the best place to build a link road was between the motorway and Clickers Way, the Earl Shilton bypass, where the routes are less than a mile apart.
Coun Hall said: “The frustrating thing for drivers on Clickers Way is that you can see the M69 but you have to travel a very long way to actually get on the motorway network.
“It would deliver a great benefit to residents living in south Leicestershire in terms of transport.
“People who live in Barwell and Earl Shilton find it very hard to get onto the motorway, and a link road has the potential to unlock housing and industrial development. It would also improve access to the existing industrial site at Desford. Traffic for Caterpillar could come straight off the motorway rather than doing it at Burbage.”
Coun Hall is chairman of the A5 Partnership, a group of councils working to get the A5, which runs along the border of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, upgraded.
He said: “The A5 must be the priority. That is the key thing, And then there is the planned A46 Expressway, and both of those are major pieces of national infrastructure.
“But after them, an A47/M69 link would be a major asset.
“It would be expensive, but if there were money to be had from the Government after the A5 is improved, it should be something we are pushing for now we are looking at priorities for the next 30 years.”
Future transport schemes will be a fundamental part of Leicestershire’s Strategic Growth Plan (SRG), a longterm plan for development across the county up to 2050.
The draft SRG has been out for consultation since January 11.
The consultation was due to close at the beginning of April, but the closing date for people to give their views has now been extended to Thursday, May 10, 2018.
The plan has been developed by a partnership formed by Leicester City and Leicestershire County Councils, the seven local borough and district authorities and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP).
Since the consultation was launched, additional evidence has been published that people responding to the consultation might wish to read and consider. As a result, the consultation period has been extended.
The new evidence includes reports on sustainability, habitats and transport impacts, all of which can be found on the Strategic Growth Plan website.
The plan estimates that Leicester and Leicestershire needs 96,580 new homes and up to 1,000 acres of employment land up to 2031 though a considerable number of those houses have already been built.