North East will be 'left behind' if A1 dualling scrapped, councillor claims
A local councillor in Northumberland fears the North East will be "left behind" if Labour does not commit to a project to dual the A1 in the county.
Plans to dual the road between Morpeth and Ellingham were approved by the previous Conservative government in May just days after the general election was called.
However, shortly after Labour's landslide victory in July, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a review into “unfunded” transport costs across the country amid a £22 billion black hole in public finances.
Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting of Northumberland County Council, Conservative councillor David Bawn said: “Key projects like dualling the A1 need to be supported. Is it back to the old days of the North East being ignored by Labour?
“I am concerned that they are stalling and threatening to cancel much of our much-needed investment. In recent years, Northumberland and many northern areas have received much benefit from the levelling up agenda. The first thing the new Government has done is abolish the Levelling Up department.”
The council’s deputy leader, Coun Richard Wearmouth, said the council was still pushing for the A1 to be dualled.
He said:”Dualling the A1 is really important for us economically and in terms of road safety when you think of all the lives that have been lost due to a lack of dualling. There has been so much work done that must not be thrown away.
“I hope very much we are able to make the case for that continued investment. We will fight for every penny. Over the last number of years we have been incredibly fortunate to be the beneficiaries of significant amounts of levelling up funds – whether that is the Northumberland Line, Town Deal funding for Ashington and Blyth, the Borderlands deal, a Heritage Action Zone for Hexham and more besides.
“We are hopeful to be able to continue that. I remember the days of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown where we couldn’t get a penny – despite having all of those cabinet ministers up here. We can only hope that we don’t end up in that situation again.”
The Government pointed to a statement made Transport Secretary Louise Haigh in July, in which she pointed to an ‘extremely challenging financial inheritance’ left by the previous Government.
She added: “The previous administration has left a £22 billion public spending gap this year alone – £2.9bn of which is unfunded transport commitments. Communities up and down the country have been given hope for new transport infrastructure, with no plans or funds to deliver them.
“This Government will not make that mistake. The gap between promised schemes and the money available to deliver them has been made clear to me.
“I am commissioning an internal review of the Department for Transport’s capital spend portfolio. We will bring in external expertise and move quickly to make recommendations about current and future schemes.”
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