Transport Insights

Now that the summer is officially over, I have returned to the issue of the zombie local road schemes that appeared in the spring not to have survived a review – and it appears that promises to clarify their status in “the summer” have not been honoured.

The story starts with a review of Major Road Network and Large Local Majors (MRN/LLM) programme announced last year, which led to the announcement in March that 16 schemes “will progress”, leaving 26 effectively, but not officially scrapped.

As I have reported, the DfT said that these schemes were still under review, with a decision expected “later in the summer”.

But now it’s September.

Wiltshire Council told me that it has not heard anything further about its funding bid for the A350 Melksham bypass, while Gloucestershire CC seems to have picked up that the can had been kicked further down the road.

In July it indicated that it was going to carry on progressing its scheme for new M5 junction and a bypass for the A46 near Tewkesbury, including spending more public money on it, but noted that the government funding was still uncertain. A paper to its Cabinet stated:

On the 26 March 2026 the government made an announcement regarding transport schemes, including the M5 J9 scheme, and confirmed that further specific details for this scheme would be announced in ‘early summer’ (July) 2026.
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However, with the recent changes in parliament involving a new Prime Minister, an announcement has been made by Government that it is unlikely that any new funding decisions will now occur before September.

I’m not sure what announcement this was, but a council spokesperson told me that it was still waiting to hear from the

The DfT has not responded to my request for an update.