Opposition Conservative councillors have accused South Gloucestershire Council’s Lib Dem-Labour administration of ‘failing to provide leadership’ over the M49 ghost junction debacle.

Last week National Highways, which finished most of the construction work seven years ago at a cost of
£50 million, revealed ‘defects’ had been discovered at the two-bridge roundabout near Bristol linking Severnside and Avonmouth, along with a huge retail distribution park, causing even more delays, says the Bristol Post.

The agency said it was assessing options for repairs so it could eventually be connected to local roads.

The completion of the junction has been delayed for years because of a hotchpotch of ownership of adjacent land, verges, wasteland, drains and access rights, with some plots as tiny as two square metres.

That obstacle appeared to have been overcome in February 2023 when the council announced plans for compulsory purchases so the 160-metre link road could be built, but it took another two-and-a-half years for work on the ground to begin.

The council said last week that it remained on track to deliver the link road by the end of 2026 but that it was up to National Highways when it would be connected to the motorway junction.

Now the Conservative group has criticised both the government organisation in charge of the nation’s major road network and the local authority’s coalition running the council.

Labour hit back, saying residents would recognise that the key decisions in the saga were taken years ago by the then-Tory administration, including going ahead with the junction before the link road.

(Picture: National Highways)