Norfolk County Council’s cabinet will be asked to approve recommendations to progress a major road project after it received planning approval. West Winch Housing Access Road will cut congestion on the A10 and A47 in the west of the county, take heavy traffic out of the village of West Winch and enable up to 4,000 new homes to be built.
At a meeting this morning, Norfolk County Council’s planning committee approved the planning application for the project. Now a report has been published which sets out how officers are proposing to keep making progress towards an anticipated start of construction in just over a year’s time.
The report asks for approval to award the contract to finalise the design and build the road – if approved, the successful bidder would be appointed this winter and commence the detailed design process.
An update is also provided on an issue that has emerged recently related to work to divert two large high-pressure gas mains, which is likely to be necessary before construction on the housing access road can begin. This has been accounted for in the project budget and timetable for several years, however National Gas Transmission’s latest estimate for this work, provided this autumn, has risen to £24.5m, which has more than doubled since the figures provided last year.
Cllr Graham Plant, Cabinet Member for Highways, Infrastructure and Transport at Norfolk County Council, said:
“It’s fantastic that we’ve now got planning approval for this important infrastructure project, which comes after getting Outline Business Case approval from the Department for Transport in April, so we’ve achieved two big milestones this year.
“Given the progress we’ve made, it’s incredibly frustrating that costs for gas diversion works quoted to us by National Gas Transmission have shot up, and it’s not clear why it’s increased so much.
“We’re pressing National Gas Transmission to find a more affordable solution, however, we still need to plan for a different outcome in case the costs cannot be reduced.
“The Government wants us to build this road, the borough council wants us to build this road and we want to build this road – so, working together, I’m confident we can make it happen.”
Once the outcome of a review of options from National Gas Transmission and a final quote for the work has been provided by them, the council intends to work with Homes England (the Government’s housing agency) and the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk to find funding solutions for any additional costs. An update on the finalised funding arrangements will be provided to cabinet for approval early next year.
(Picture: Norfolk County Counci)
