Contractors working on the A66 trans-Pennine upgrade could be housed in caravans along the route with plans already submitted for 14 touring caravans to be installed at the rear of the Vintage Inn off the westbound carriageway near Scotch Corner to North Yorkshire Council.
The applicant submitted by one of the contractors on the A66 Upgrade project seeking permission for the caravans to be in place for a four-year period while the dualling scheme, which will stretch from Scotch Corner to Penrith, is carried out.
The application says that the scale of the A66 upgrade project will mean workers will be needed from outside the local area "Due to the remoteness of the A66 route, this will make recruiting operators locally difficult, especially considering how busy the North-East is already with projects such as the steel works regeneration and many other projects."
Operators working on similar schemes have pitched caravans on farms in the past, but due to the work on the A66 upgrade being in a scenic rural area, parts of which are in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, this would not be allowed to prevent a negative impact on tourism locally.
Work was expected to start on the A66 upgrade to full dual carriageway along its 50-mile length in early 2025.
However, doubt has been cast on the future of the scheme after the new Labour government announced a review of large infrastructure projects with the future of the A66 still to be confirmed by the Government.
The application submitted for the Scotch Corner site is currently only looking to site 14 caravans on the land to the rear of the Vintage Inn to accommodate between 14 and 18 people.
If the upgrade goes ahead National Highways expect the construction phase will see between 4,000 and 6,000 people working on the project along the 50 mile stretch of the A66 between Cumbria and North Yorkshire.
Some local businesses are already looking to provide increased accommodation capacity in the area to house the increased workforce including plans approved earlier this year by Westmorland and Furness Council to allow former student accommodation at Newton Rigg to b e converted into hotel accommodation that as part of the application identified the accommodation needs for the A66 workforce as part of the application business case.
In April a National Highways spokesperson briefing Westmorland and Furness councillors on the A66 upgrade plans told the committee that an accommodation strategy was being developed and that they were using knowledge gained in the construction of Sellafield and the accommodation plans used to model a plan for the A66 accommodation strategy.
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