Government gives support to plans to dual A30 in Cornwall
CORNWALL was given an early Christmas present today after the Government announced it would give financial backing to plans to dual the A30 coming into Cornwall.
The announcement came after a long campaign by local councillors, Cornwall Council and local MPs all calling for the bottleneck at Temple to be widened.
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The A30 in Cornwall
Chancellor George Osborne included the project in a national programme of road improvements announced in his Autumn statement this afternoon.
Cornwall Council earlier this year put forward a proposal whereby it would provide part of the funding for the A30 project if the Government agreed to provide match funding.
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The plan was put forward after the Government indicated that it would be unable to provide all the funding required for the scheme.
Cornwall councillor Mick Martin, who has led the campaign to get the road dualled and chairs the A30 Action Group, welcomed the news.
He said: "Traffic congestion on the main roads in and out of Cornwall is a huge issue for holiday makers, local residents and businesses.
"Not only will the council's innovative proposals help address this congestion and improve the lives of many thousands of people, it will do so at a much lower cost to tax payers and in a much shorter time than these projects usually take."
North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson said of the announcement: "I have campaigned to get this stretch of the A30 dualled since before my election as MP in 2005. We refused to let things drop and with hard work, an excellent business case, together with a listening government, we will now see the scheme delivered.
"I'd like to thank Mick Martin and the local Temple to Bodmin A30 Action Group and of course all those officers at Cornwall Council who worked on this more efficient and less costly design.
"This fantastic news will make the road safer, will be good for business and good for local communities, particularly during this tough economic period."
Chris Pomfret, chair of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, said that the project would provide a boost to businesses across the county.
He said: "This scheme will play a vital role in the future prosperity of Cornwall by encouraging economic growth, aiding regeneration and business expansion and supporting tourism.
"As well as providing transport benefits in excess of £154m by reducing congestion and delays it will create benefits of more than £117m for the Cornish economy. Cornwall is a great place to do business and these improvements will encourage inward investment and help existing businesses access bigger markets and improve exports to the rest of the UK and beyond."
Comments
by JJLee
Thursday, December 06 2012, 7:24AM
“Newlyn I believe the London Congestion Charge was to deter vehicles, the complete opposite to the intention here, though I have no doubt the Coucil would think about toll charges if they thought they could get away with it as they have done down on the A38. Its only a mattter of time before driving becomes a rich mans pastime”
by Cknocker
Thursday, December 06 2012, 7:17AM
“Got to disagree with you Newlyn, while the Chivie - Carland Section needs sorting, this development is unlikely to put any additional pressure on that section.
With the distance between the two sections, the traffic is already bunched back up by the time it gets to Carland cross now, on top of that a huge volume of the traffic has already left for Newquay and Carland cross filters off the Truro/Falmouth traffic.
One way of helping the flow on that section of road would be to restrict tractors on it, some of the agri-businesses have got beyond a joke, hauling with tractors from Bodmin to Hayle - and they never pull over.”
by 1newlyn
Thursday, December 06 2012, 4:49AM
“I would think the idea is to improve the access to cornwall in both directions.
This now just moves the bottle neck to Carland cross , yippeeeeee I cant wait to join the lines of vehicles there in the summer !
To pay for this why do the council not put a toll on the non cornish residents and those from outside the county with second homes in Cornwall.
They can use a similar system to the police ANPR system that tracks vehicles in and out of the county at the moment to collect the payments.A simple computer program can do this.
A sign at all border crossings is all that is needed to fore warn drivers of non resident vehicles tht a payment will be due.It would also generate work for Cornish residents which Cornwall is urgently in need of .This is what is done in London and its called 'The Congestion Charge' why can we not have our own version of this ??”
by sumbleddymaid
Wednesday, December 05 2012, 2:43PM
“I wrote my car off on this stretch of road :-S. What struck me was that they claim to back plans dualling the A30 'COMING INTO' Cornwall! Great news for the emmets!”
by JJLee
Wednesday, December 05 2012, 1:36PM
“The key words being provide "...part of the funding..."”