Renewed hope for Melton southern relief road

Drone image showing work on the NEMMDR on the A606 between Melton and Burton Lazars, near where it would link with a proposed southern sectionPHOTO GEORGE ICKE

The south section, which would link the A606 Burton Road with the A607 Leicester Road, was proposed to connect with the North East Melton Mowbray Distributor Road, which was started last year and is expected to be opened to traffic in late 2025.

But Leicestershire County Council decided in October that the southern link was no longer viable because the original £27million cost had soared to £70million due to rising construction costs and inflation and the authority could not afford it due to its own extreme financial challenges.

Crucially, County Hall said the road link was not off the table completely and that it would work to identify alternative funding sources to get it built.

The route of the Melton Mowbray Distributor including the proposed southern relief link, which is not currently funded

And that money may well be available now after it was announced on Monday that Leicestershire was being allocated more than £238million from the government’s Local Transport Fund.

The new funding will be spread over a seven-year period and is due to be invested from April 2025 – the county council says it will now work on a plan on where to spend it.

Melton MP Alicia Kearns, who said the new funding was ‘fantastic news’, has already held two meetings with Transport Minister, Mark Harper, about the potential for extra money for the southern relief road.

She said the final decision on where it was allocated was down to the county council and, in her Melton Times column this week (in Thursday’s paper) she writes: “This really is the most enormous investment in our communities, and I will be working with Leicestershire County Council to identify projects for its use, unsurprisingly the A52 at Bottesford, the Six Hills Lane Junction and local buses will be priorities, and I will be looking to see whether the rest of the MMDR (the south link) can also be funded from this.”

Melton Borough Council leader, Councillor Pip Allnatt, commented: "The news of additional finding for roads and transport in Leicestershire is timely and I would welcome any discussion with the Highways Authority, Leicestershire County Council, regarding the southern link of the distributor road.

"Adding the southern link would be a huge boost for the growth and economy of the local area and I would be willing to work with them to bring the plans back to life to get the road built.”

The Department for Transport says the funding can be spent on building new roads and improving junctions.

It can also be used for work such as filling potholes, street lighting, improving bus services, refurbishing bus and rail stations and installing more electric car charging points.

The money has been made available from savings on the HS2 high speed rail project.

Reacting to the new funding, Councillor Ozzy O’Shea, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "This funding from central government is great news for Leicestershire.

“Now we have to wait for guidance from the government for more detail, and on how much we’ll receive each year during the seven-year period. We do expect the allocations to be lower in the earlier years.

"We also have to consider other priorities across the county which we might want to deliver with this funding.”

This week’s announcement comes on top of the almost £132million recent uplift in government funding for Leicestershire for roads resurfacing and filling potholes.