Infrastructure work ‘can be done years faster’, says report

Major infrastructure improvements on key routes to and from West Norfolk could be delivered months or years earlier if a new approach is adopted, a report has claimed.

The document, which is set to be examined by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough combined authority next week, claims work to dual the stretch of the A47 between Walton Highway and Peterborough could be done six years earlier, by 2027, than expected under standard methods.

It also suggests the project to upgrade the Ely north junction could also be accelerated by several months.

The authority’s mayor, James Palmer, said: “The need for investment in our transport infrastructure is clear and obvious, and people rightly get frustrated by delays and false dawns when it comes to getting them delivered.

“A big part of my responsibility is to challenge the delays and these unnecessarily long processes that are holding us back.

“When Highways England will commit only to dualling two miles of the A47 and when solving the rail bottleneck at Ely is still not guaranteed, I’m simply not prepared to consider this acceptable.”

The report is due to be debated at a meeting next Wednesday. If approved, officials will look in more detail at what can be done, with a further report then expected to follow this autumn.