Grantham East-West Bypass Article for Grantham Journal 18 July 2007

I made two commitments at the last Elections specifically to the electors of Grantham – to do everything possible to save the hospital, and to get an East-West bypass. Of course my crossing the floor in the House of Commons does not change by an iota my commitment to these two causes.

There seems to have been some doubt about the course of events on the by-pass, so let me use the column this week to set the record straight.

At the beginning of the last parliament – I think in 2002 or 2003 – at the behest of the County Council I lobbied John Prescott to try to get Government funding for a Grantham by-pass. After one or two conversations, it became quite clear to me that we didn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of getting such funding – the traffic flows (and indeed the accident rate! ) were simply nothing like high enough to meet the Department of Transport’s criteria. Another way forward had to be found, or the idea would have to be abandoned.

I therefore decided to see if I could find a basis for financing the by-pass by planning gain. The first step was to go to see the landowner of the land in question, the Buckminster Estate, and explore whether they might be interested in a deal. The second was to see if the District Council would be prepared to allocate a sufficient proportion of its planning totals to the project to enable a by-pass to be financed. The third was to see if the County Council, our Highways Authority, would be prepared to make a necessary contribution, and to commit its resources to plan a new road.

Initially the conversations were separate and bilateral. But everyone’s reaction was positive in principle (with the inevitable “ifs” and “buts”) and for the past two years we have been meeting jointly at regular intervals in a series of meetings I have chaired in the Guildhall.

The issues to be resolved have been complex – environmental, bureaucratic, financial and those involving Network Rail. Nothing could be done until the District Council had consulted on a new strategic plan. This was completed earlier this month.

Many things can still go wrong – a collapse in the national housing market, a legal challenge or inquiry that goes the wrong way, a change in the regime for planning gain (Section 106 of the Planning Act) and all kinds of risks in contractual negotiations. It will be some time before we can put the champagne on ice, let alone drink it.

Meantime the County Council have promised to introduce a lorry ban in central Grantham the day the by-pass opens.

That would surely call for a double celebration.