By New information reveals why £36 million Grimsby West Relief Road was rejected by government
Back in October 2021, it was revealed that North East Lincolnshire Council’s £50 million Levelling Up Fund bid was rejected for unknown reasons.
The majority of the funding was set to be spent on the planning and development of a new 2.5-mile link road to the west of Grimsby, alongside plans for a separate housing scheme along this road, with plans for up to 3,500 homes.
This would, according to NELC, “reduce congestion, journey times and vehicle emissions across the borough”.
The plans were met with outcry from locals, creating the protest group Save the Freshney Valley who felt this bid would damage with environment and the Grimsby West area.
A new FOI has now revealed why this bid was unsuccessful, after months of speculation and confusion.
Sent by the Department for Transport, the first reason that is detailed is a lack of consultation.
Although the FOI acknowledges engagement with local businesses and housing developers was well attended, the report added that the bid would be improved with further engagement with residents which is “recent and bid specific”.
Secondly, the DfT found that the main beneficiary of the bid would be the housing development at Grimsby West Urban extension, adding that “growth in the form of new or improved access to employment sites is secondary to housing”.
Finally, on value for money, the report found that more evidence was needed on how proposals will address existing or anticipated problems.
The bid also needed to update scheme costs as data was based on an estimate from 2015 as opposed to 2021.
Responding to the findings, Lyndsey Downes, Chair of Friends of the Freshney Valley said: “Our group campaigned tirelessly to point out to NELC councillors and officers and even government ministers, the £50m bid did not meet the criteria. NELC insisted it did and that consultation for the local plan was sufficient. They insisted too that this was a “Relief Road” when we said that it was not and was only to open the land for development, it seems the Department of Transport agreed with us on that too. Even our MPs told me it was a much-needed road for our transport network, and they formally endorsed this bid too.
“Whilst it’s some vindication to see in black and white we were right all along, it’s frustrating that incompetence of those in charge has led to a lost opportunity for monies to come into the town. I hope they learn from this and don’t submit any other bids that lack imagination and public support.”
Cllr Philip Jackson, leader of NELC, said:
“When we considered the original LUF criteria, for the transport bid, we wanted to help bring forward access to much-needed housing land to benefit current and future residents of our area. This was supported at the time and was a key part of the local plan’s highways and housing element. However, as people know, this bid for funds for the strategic road were rejected by Government for several reasons. In fact, from the 306 bids submitted by councils across the country, only 105 bids were successful. We have since confirmed that we won’t be submitting another LUF bid for the Western Relief Road project, but will use the option to bid for LUF funds for a different transport scheme instead. Housing remains a challenge our borough faces and we must continue to do what we can to support our residents going forward.
“As has been widely reported, we have just outlined our plans to submit further applications to the Levelling Up Fund scheme – as directed by Government, two of these can be constituency based bids, and an additional one for transport. The revised transport application now focusses on Grimsby Town Centre – bringing forward a project that many people have asked for – the delivery of a new public transport centre. Other projects that may also form part of the bid, to be submitted in July this year, include repair of the vital bridges on the A180 that are used by thousands of people daily, and also a scheme to start the electrification process of local buses to help reduce our carbon emissions and contribute to our Net Zero targets.
“We’ll be talking with local people and businesses in the coming weeks about how those plans could develop.”
