PLANS announced by the Government to put up more cash for infrastructure projects have boosted the chances of the Carrington Road Bridge being dualled, according to a leading councillor.
Worcestershire County Council deputy leader Simon Geraghty’s claims come just weeks after council leader Adrian Hardman and Mark Stansfield, chairman of Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, had written a business case for the estimated £70million dualling project to the Government.
The document said the improvements would speed up journey times by up to 50 per cent at peak times and would significantly benefit business, especially in the Malvern area.
Work is still ongoing on the Southern Link Road which is being dualled from the Whittington to the Ketch roundabouts, but there is a danger the project could come to a halt in 2018 if funding for it is not found.
And Coun Geraghty told the Observer the latest proposals by Chancellor George Osborne to make billions of pounds of extra funding available for road improvement projects meant council chiefs could be closer to getting their hands on £70million for the much-needed project.
He said Worcestershire County Council would also be putting in a fresh bid for cash for the major bridge project.
“The Chancellor did say in the spending review that he was allocating some new money for highways.
“So there’s Local Growth Funding that goes through the Local Enterprise Partnership and there’s also a fund that’s been created, I think its £475million for large highway schemes – that’s the pot of money we’d like to bid into, those two pots of money for the Carrington Bridge.
“I think the likelihood of being able to secure more money for the Carrington Bridge is more likely after the Chancellor’s spending announcements than before, because he had prioritised major infrastructure.
“The overall pot for major infrastructure is going up by 50 per cent – from £40billion to £60billion over the lifetime of this Parliament.
“That has got to be good news for Worcester and Worcestershire because it means the pot of money we’re bidding into is 50 per cent more, and so the likelihood of being able to get even a very large scheme like the Carrington Bridge through does increase if there’s more money in the system.
“We’ll be lobbying even harder over the next few years to try and get the funding secured.”
West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has long campaigned for the road to be dualled and has supported the county council in making a funding bid.
