Thirsk, Malton and Filey MP hopeful A64 improvements WILL go ahead
Kevin Hollinrake says he's had meetings recently with National Highways and the A64 Road Partnership
Thirsk, Malton and Filey's MP says he is hopeful improvements to a part of the A64 WILL go ahead.
It is after recent questions about when the works to the Hopgrove roundabout and some dualling will actually start.
The quarter of a million pound project is yet to be signed off.
Kevin Hollinrake says he has had recent meetings with National Highways and the A64 Road Partnership:
"So both meetings went very well and this isn't a done deal yet. Our aspiration, our intention is that we deliver this, spades go in the ground in 2025 and completed by 2030. That's the timescale.
"Ultimately it'll be a decision for ministers; which proves the best value? Which is the most in need? So we need to keep making the case with our ministers. I asked on the floor of the House only a couple of weeks ago to Grant Shapps 'give us the A64 dualling' and he knows all about the road.
"I think we definitely hoped it would happen in this road period, so it would be under construction now, but what happened is that Highways England were looking at it and suddenly the price tag attached to it, because of all those junctions, roundabouts and flyovers, the cost got higher than expected.
"What we managed to do is get it on the development pipeline so this means a really properly, properly costed thing. This is in scope now where before it might have seen out of scope as a result so we didn't lose our chances entirely. We kept it in the game is what we did.
Kevin thinks the levelling-up agenda will help:
"£640 billion of transport infrastructure over this five year period which is record amounts. What the Government did is not just spend record amounts but changed the formula by which decisions are made where the money is spent. It means projects in the North now, like the A64, are much more likely to happen."