MP hits out at attempt to revive bypass plan
LOWER-GRADE A46 EXPRESSWAY
AN MP has criticised attempts to resurrect plans for a bypass around the south and east of Leicester.
Plans for the controversial £1 billion A46 Expressway were scrapped earlier this year when transport bosses concluded the road would be too expensive to build.
It was also said it would not achieve its aims of solving congestion problems on the M1 and the existing A46 to the north of the city.
However, it has emerged planners are considering creating a road to a lower standard than the “motorwaygrade” route originally proposed.
The expressway was proposed by Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council and the seven district authorities in a Strategic Growth Plan (SGP) designed to plan for future population expansion in the city and the county up to 2051.
The road was intended to create a corridor from the Hobby Horse roundabout at Syston in an arc around the city to the M1 at a new junction between Leicester and Lutterworth, along which 40,000 homes could be built. It had been proposed as a key part of the national transport infrastructure for motorists travelling between the South West and the East Coast.
Documents released by the Members Advisory Group (MAG), which meets privately to shape the SGP, have suggested the principle of the corridor is still required, but on a lesser scale.
Harborough MP Neil O’Brien accused the MAG of
“a total refusal to listen” and said it was just trying to push the idea through under another name. He said: “The Strategic Growth Plan process has been a missed opportunity.
“Instead of thinking through what we need as a county, there has been an obsession with trying to push one particular proposal – for a road around the south and east of the city.
“When the expressway was abandoned, I thought we were finally making progress and we could start a proper process in which we would work out what infrastructure each council may need and how we can work together to bid for help to get it.
“Instead, it seems although the name has been changed, the obsession with building this road continues. It’s a total refusal to listen.
“If the group refuses to listen to what councillors in some parts of the county are saying, the process will ultimately just be a waste of time and won’t lead to anything.
“Instead of putting the cart before the horse, we should look at what ideas different councils are exploring and help them deliver them, rather than trying to impose something from the top down which residents don’t want.”
Leicestershire County Council’s Liberal Democrat opposition group leader Councillor Simon Galton said: “It looks like the planners can’t give up on this road because they just don’t have any other ideas.”
The MAG is made up of district council leaders, Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and county council leader Nick Rushton.
Coun Galton said he understood the group was split over the principal of the road.
He said: “They’ve accepted the motorway-grade road is dead but some of members still want the corridor on a smaller road.”
MAG chairman Councillor Trevor Pendleton said he could not comment on the matter, other than to say there would have to be some infrastructure in that part of the county to support economic and housing growth.