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Trains, bridges and roads needed in the east

Deborah McGurran | 18:29 UK time, Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Ministers say they are getting the message as pressure mounts to complete the dualling of the A11

We all know that the Spending Review will be dominated by cuts. But there may just be some good news for our region too.


As well as deciding where to wield the axe, the government will also announce where it's going to spend what little money it has left. And that's providing a glimmer of hope for the region's MPs and business leaders, who have a whole list of infrastructure projects which could do with funding.

The (EEDA) has just brought out a report which concludes that the East of England currently receives the second lowest levels of public spending per head in England.

And it says we also suffer from significant under spending, when compared to economic need, in a number of areas like housing, transport and education.

"The East of England contributes around £6bn a year to the UK exchequer," says Will Pope, of EEDA.

"We are one of only three regions to contribute more to the public purse than we receive back in public spending. If you apply the national average to our population, the East of England would have an additional £5.5 billion a year to spend, which is staggering.

"Despite being seen as a prosperous part of the world, the East of England suffers from some very real challenges; parts of our infrastructure are creaking and we have considerable skills shortages and issues with housing availability."

Government MPs are attaching a lot of importance to the new Regional Growth Fund which will back projects with strong economic benefit. They argue that the dualling of the A11 in Suffolk and the improvements to the A14 in Cambridge should be allowed to go ahead under this criteria.

And campaigners point out that even after the cuts, the Transport Department is still going to have 60% or so of its budget left. Will it spend any of it on the East?

We have drawn up our own list of the key infrastructure projects in our region which need funding. Do you agree?

A14 The road around Cambridge is in desperate need of widening and upgrading. Ninety thousand vehicles use it every day. It is the main link road from the East coast ports to the Midlands and a quarter of the traffic is freight. Improving the road comes with a price tag of just over £1 billion. A public inquiry was about to be held into the plans but it was put on hold pending the outcome of the spending review.

A11 Campaigners say that Norwich is the only City in England not be linked by a completely dualled road. Just one 11-mile stretch on the Norfolk/Suffolk border remains single lane. Completing the road would cost in the region of £134m. A public inquiry was held last year - the inspector's report is still to be published.

East/West Rail Link For many years the business community has called for a more reliable and faster service from the east of the region to the far west and onto Oxford. Campaigners say the project would require laying new track in parts of Bedfordshire but more carriages and better scheduling would improve things.

The Essex Rail Line The main line from Colchester to London Liverpool Street is used by thousands of commuters every day - yet in many places there is just a single track in each direction. Travellers complain about delays and overcrowding. Laying extra track would be the ideal solution but given how built up the area is, it would be very expensive. Campaigners say new rolling stock and a better signalling system would improve things considerably.

Third Road Crossings For the A12 at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Local businesses regularly complain about congestion which they say costs them dearly.

Port Funding Both Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft ports have expressed interest in a £60 million fund set up by Labour to help ports develop to accommodate wind farm traffic. If they were to get it, hundreds of new jobs would be created.

A new junction for Harlow Harlow currently has just one exit from the M11 yet the town is one of the big growth towns in the region. A second junction would ease congestion.

New schools for Luton The town is due to run out of secondary school places by 2014 after the Building Schools for the Future project was stopped. Funding for more new schools is urgently needed.

Dunstable Northern bypass The A5 provides a route from Milton Keynes to the M1 at Junction 9, passing through the built-up area of Dunstable, which often experiences traffic congestion. The plans for a dual carriageway have also been put on hold pending the Spending Review.

So, what do you think?

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    My company has researched all the transport schemes being promoted within the East of England and have added summaries for all of them to Wikipedia. We have identified over 200 schemes including road, rail airport, port, cycling and walking with a total cost in excess of £50billion. Click on any link in this list to find out more:


    One important scheme you have not mentioned which would help the A14 is the 'Felixstowe and Nuneaton freight capacity scheme' which will take freight off the road. more details here:


    We have also researched the opportunities to create a more effective express coach transport network along the A14 and elsewhere in the UK. Coaches are very efficient users of roadspace and do not need a subsidy from the government. They do however need efficient out-of-town interchanges to local transport. There is currently no coach service along a lot of the A14. More here:


    This research is part of IdeasInTransit, a five 5 year research project which is part funded by the Department for Transport and the Technology Strategy Board.



    Regards,


    Peter

  • Comment number 2.

    What is also important for the town of Harlow is that the spending review does not pull the plug on the move of the former Health Protection Agency to the Old GlaxoSmithKline site from Porta Down in Whiltshire. If this move does not take place it will be a blow to jobs here and will be bad for support businesses in the area.

  • Comment number 3.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 4.

    "For many years the business community has called for a more reliable and faster service from the east of the region to the far west and onto Oxford. "

    I grew up in Ipswich and then moved to Oxford. I would like to assure all readers that Oxford is not in a place beyond "the far west". I know East Anglia has reputation for being insular, but Bedford doesn't count as being in the "west" for most of England. Bristol or Wales are the more common definition of "far West".

    That said, I hope East Anglia gets the investment in infrastructure that it is long over-due.

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