The South West Regional Assembly’s decision to include the A30 Temple to Higher Carblake scheme in its list of regional transport investment priorities is a ‘victory for Cornwall’, according to local MP, Dan Rogerson.
Mr Rogerson wrote to members of the Regional Assembly Executive yesterday urging them to prioritise the improvement work, which would see the last section of single carriageway between Carlisle and Carland Cross upgraded to dual carriageway.
The three mile stretch of road is presently a key bottleneck, contributing to some 744,000 hours of delays each year. Neighbouring villages suffer from rat-running a drivers seek to avoid the traffic, while accidents remain serious and frequent.
Commenting he said:
“Since my election in 2005, I have fought with local people to have this scheme made a priority for the region. The upgrade will end years of delays on that stretch of road, improve safety, and remove the blight of rat-runners through local villages.
“It has taken a great deal of work and argument on the part of Doris Ansari, Chairman of the County Council, to get the A30 Temple scheme firmly back on the list today. I want to congratulate her, and the Temple to Bodmin A30 Action Group who are tenacious, formidable campaigners.
“Only two weeks ago the Assembly was planning to kick our scheme into the long grass for more than a decade. We persuaded them to change their minds and our lobbying together has proved effective.
“We can consider today’s meeting a real victory.”