THE Transport Secretary has been told the region cannot afford an A19 U-turn.
Patrick McLoughlin heard at a Tynemouth meeting it would be damaging to the regional economy if he went back on a promise to fund much-needed improvements to the A19 / A 1058 Coast Road Silverlink roundabout.
A plan to remove the roundabout north of the Tyne Tunnel for traffic driving along the A19 only has provisional Government approval, prompting concerns it might never get the go ahead.
The Highways Agency is thought to be working on a start date of 2016, but this is dependant on available funds.
At a meeting with the Transport Secretary this week was North Tyneside elected mayor Linda Arkley and Rachel Turnbull, chief executive of the Tyne Tunnel company TT2.
Mr McLoughlin was told that unless cash was made available for the Silverlink, and eventually other junctions nearby, the Tyne Tunnel improvements would be worthless.
Ms Turnbull’s team have warned previously that “the benefits of the previous interim works are already starting to disappear at peak times”.
Mrs Arkley said: “The Transport Secretary was very eager to hear what we are dealing with here, he drove through the route himself after the breakfast meeting and was left in no doubt of how important this is. Obviously I am thrilled that we now have a start date of 2016 for this work on the Silverlink, it is a great sign for the region.”
Before that work will start in April on a series of interim improvements to the junction.
One of those also making the case for the region was manufacturing and engineering consultancy boss Peter Hedley.
“I stressed to him the need to tackle the infrastructure shortage in the North East, particularly along the A19,” he said.
“You can get caught up in the wrong arguments on this. Yes, money is tight and I fully understand that, but the department needs to be making money available to have the business case ready to go on this, so we can start the moment we have the opportunity.”
A spokeswoman for the Highways Agency said: “On May 8 the Department for Transport announced that funding would be provided to develop the A19 / A1058 Coast Road Junction Improvement scheme, to ensure a pipeline of future Highways Agency major infrastructure improvements.
“By developing the scheme during the current spending review period, it will be in a good position to be considered for delivery in the early years of the next spending review period (post 2015) subject to successful completion of statutory processes and availability of funds.”
