West roads to get billions for major improvements

The Prime Minister David Cameron visited Stonehenge this afternoon to talk about the Government's plans to spend £15bn on upgrading the country's road network. It includes making the A303 and A30 dual carriageways. He spoke to our Political Correspondent Bob Constantine.

The Prime Minister has insisted that Britain can afford the £15bn road improvements announced by the Coalition today which include plans to dual the A303 and take the road through a tunnel under Stonehenge.

Mr Cameron visited Stonehenge this afternoon where he said that Britain "can't afford not to do this"

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has told ITV News that the allocation of money for billions of pounds worth of road improvements will be enshrined in law.

He was speaking at Stonehenge where he made the announcement of more than 80 new road schemes costing £15bn. This includes a plan to dual the A303 which will take the road under Stonehenge.

THE Government’s announcement that it is to invest in vital improvements to the A358 between Taunton and the A303 near Ilminster is being celebrated by civic leaders in Taunton Deane.

The improvement, announced today, is part of £2 billion of investment in roads in the South West, with the improvements to the A303 at Sparkford and the A358 Taunton link being the first to enter construction.

Yeovil MP David Laws has welcomed the Government's plans to dual the A303 and A358, all the way from the M3 to the M5 at Taunton.

The plan does not involve dualling the A303 over the sensitive Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding National Beauty, but instead there will be smaller scale improvements to this stretch of road. The whole plan is expected to take over a decade to deliver. The most expensive parts are a 2.9km tunnel (costing £1.2bn) around Stonehenge, and the £300m dualling of the A358, from Ilminster to the M5 at Taunton.

A new junction off the M49 at Avonmouth is part of the series of roads improvements announced by the Government today.

The junction is proposed for the area where Farm Lane - linking Severn Beach and Easter Compton - crosses the M49 motorway, south of the existing distribution park.

This new junction will help unlock growth in the Avonmouth/Severnside Enterprise Area - the largest brownfield site in Western Europe - opening it up and linking it to other key centres in the south west and nationally and delivering up to 14,000 new jobs by 2030.

Drivers in the West Country are set benefit from what's being hailed as the biggest upgrade to roads in a generation.

The Government has confirmed that it will spend more than £2 billion to include building a new tunnel at Stonehenge, upgrading the A303, dualling the A358 link road and the so-called, "missing link" on the A417 at Birdlip near Gloucester. There are also plans to improve Junction 23 of the M5 at Bridgwater and create batter access to Avonmouth from the M49.