Cornwall could today (Thursday) be ‘dropped for a decade’ by the South West Regional Transport Board, according to North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson.
Senior councillors from across the vast ‘South West Region’ will consider proposals to shelve any upgrade to the A30 between Temple and Higher Carblake for at least ten years. They will oversee more than £1bn of funding for road improvements, but Cornwall will not see a single penny.
The stretch of road is the last remaining stretch of single carriageway between Exeter and Truro. Local campaigners have battled with Ministers and the Assembly to gain funding for the scheme, which is vital to Cornwall’s economy.
Local MP, Dan Rogerson, urgently emailed all members of the Board as soon as the proposals were uncovered. He says no final decision should be taken until the full impact on Cornwall is considered. Writing last night he said, “The Board has recently suffered criticism in the local press because it lacks a Cornish representative, and I am sure members would not want to compound the perception that our interests are being sidelined by taking a rash decision tomorrow”.
Commenting, Mr Rogerson said:
“The South West Regional Transport Board appears to be forgetting its most south-westerly corner.
“The Transport Board is on the very verge of rubber-stamping an official plan that puts parts of the region hundreds of miles from Cornwall ahead of the game, and leaves us right at the back of a ten-year long queue.
“Local campaigners have worked very hard, with my support, to secure Ministerial interest, and we all agree that the A30 upgrade scheme is absolutely vital to Cornwall’s economy, and to the safety of those who use the road.
“There are frequently serious accidents on this stretch, and in the summer delays are absolutely the rule not the exception.
“Having completed the upgrade at Indian Queen’s, the Board would be mad to shelve plans to finish the dualling job by getting on with the Temple scheme. That simply moves the jams east.
“There’s more than £1bn available for schemes of this kind, and ours would represent at most 7% of that. Since Cornwall has 10% of the population, and is the poorest and most peripheral part of the region, that doesn’t seem much to ask. Instead, we may not get a single penny.
“The Board must stop and think.”
