Transport Insights

Councillors in Northumberland are continuing to call on ministers to reinstate a National Highways scheme to dual a section of the A1 that Labour publicly scrapped last year and which was secretly shelved four years ago as poor value for money.

National Highways had wasted £68m on the scheme by the time it was finally cancelled, with overall scheme costs expected to reach £500m.

As I have written – at great length – the Tories secretly shelved the scheme following the 2021 Spending Review but ministers, National Highways and the Office of Rail and Road conspired to hide this fact from Parliament and the public.

But the BBC reports this week that:

Councillors have made renewed calls to reverse a government decision to widen a “dangerous” single carriageway main road.

Liberal Democrat councillor Isabel Hunter said the road needed to be dualled as it was getting shut on an “almost a weekly basis” due to accidents.

Hunter said: “We’re not particularly bothered which party does it, we just want the road dualled.”

Conservative council leader Glen Sanderson said it was a “fundamental need” to have a “strong spine” between Northumberland and Scotland.

“The fact that we don’t have that, the fact that we have a dangerous road… and the fact that it has cost people their lives makes it an appalling decision,” he said.

“The A1 must be dualled, there’s no question about it.”

There are of course lots of measures that can be taken to make single carriageway A roads safer without turning them into dual carriageways. But National Highways spends very little on these sorts of measures.

The LibDems are frequently accused of saying one thing nationally and whatever will get most votes at a local level.

Here is their For People, For Planet paper, as presented to the party’s 2025 national conference:

We would provide local authorities with a larger share of the road budget by undertaking a review of road building projects and cancelling or deferring projects that are poor value for money so that they can develop transport infrastructure and active travel in a climate-friendly way, in line with local requirements.

Someone should tell Cllr Hunter.

It is worth noting though that in January a Department for Transport spokesperson said:

We’re committed to boosting growth across the country and National Highways will explore solutions to this section of the A1 that offer the best value for money.

I will ask National Highways what it has done so far…