Cumbria Police Raise Concerns over A66 Upgrade Plans as Decision Day Looms.
In the latest twist to National Highways long running planning saga for the A66 upgrade that will if approved by the Secretary of State see work start to full dual the A66 from Scotchcorner to Penrith.
The Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper pushed back the decision on granting the development consent order for the £1.6bn A66 Northern Trans-Pennine by four months in November 2023, originally due to deliver his decision on the 8th of November 2023, the Secretary of State decided to set a new deadline for a decision on this application of 7th of March 2024.
In a statement made to Parliament in November the delay was “to allow for further consideration of matters including those not resolved at the time the Examining Authority’s report was received by the secretary of state”.
With less than a month to the new decision date on the A66 upgrade Cumbria Police and an organisation called Campaign for National Parks have now waded into the process sending a letters to the Secretary of State that raise a number of concerns and questions about the plans by National Highways and question what alternatives they have considered.
In a letter to the Secretary of State the Assistant Chief Constable of Cumbria Police raised a series of points and concerns including around the Kemplay build plans and impact on the police headquarters at Carleton Hall.
And National Highways plans for arrangements for temporary diversions around the site and around Kemplay Roundabout during the build phase. Adding the anticipated duration of build-phase is currently unknown.
The Assistant Chief Constable also stated “The A66 east of Penrith is a high harm area in respect of KSI collisions in the county – what preventative measures are being implemented to prevent this and will activity be linked to the Cumbria Road Safety Partnership? Is there any consideration to implementing average / fixed speed cameras, similar to that of the A590 to improve road safety? The speeds on this stretch of road will be higher given dual carriageway status. Will the speed limit be 70 MPH throughout? Will there be locations for safe vehicle stops and safety camera van enforcement zones.”
National Highways have held a series of stakeholder liaison meetings and public engagement events that have shown plans for the A66 around Penrith to reduce the speed limit from 70mph to 50mph on both the eastbound and westbound carriageways of the A66 east of Kemplay Bank roundabout and continues through to M6 junction 40.
The letter also questioned the impact of the upgrade work on the annual Kendal Calling music festival held at Lowther Deer Park in August and Appleby Fair that brings with it an increase in vulnerable Horse and Carts road users from May to June annually.
The Assistant Chief Constable also said “Cumbria Police authorise Abnormal Load Movements and Escorts between counties to strategic locations – HGV’s account for around 25% of total traffic on the A66” and questioned the impact on other routes such as A69 and A65.
The Secretary of State has invited National Highways to respond to Assistant Chief Constable of Cumbria Police questions on the A66 Upgrade.
National Highways has said “that it has engaged with Cumbria Police throughout the development of the preliminary design of the Project”
The Campaign for National Parks said it was extremely concerned National Highways effectively dismissed the need to do anything different as a result of this new statutory requirement introduced in the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act 2023 which came into force on 26 December 2023., arguing that it did not have any impact on the decision-making on this Development Consent Order.
The Campaign for National Parks said “In our view, National Highways adopted an unreasonably limited interpretation of the effect that this change was intended to have. We have now taken legal advice on the implications of this piece of legislation which confirms this.”
The organisation has received legal opinion it claims makes it very clear that National Highways must now take a much more pro-active and thorough approach to demonstrating how it has addressed the new requirement to “seek to further” the statutory purposes of the North Pennines National Landscape (AONB) and the Lake District National Park.
The Campaign for National Parks claims this means that National Highways must now provide the evidence to demonstrate why it has ruled out alternatives to dualling which would do more to further the purposes, such as introducing demand management measures to reduce traffic on the A66, investing in public transport or addressing road safety concerns by reducing speed limits. In the absence of such evidence, the organisation said “it is impossible for the Secretary of State to demonstrate that their decision on this scheme complies with the new duty to seek to further the statutory purposes.”
The delivery of the A66 upgrade has also been brought into question over concerns about the escalating costs of the project that has been deemed “poor value for money” by the Department for Transport due to spiralling costs that have currently risen to £1.6billion from the £1billion originally costs.
The Secretary of State for transport now has just 26 days to consider all the information and the development consent order made by National Highways for the A66 upgrade and make his final decision by the 7th of March 2024.
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