A14 tree-planting and at-grade junctions update
You will have seen a number of posts by me in recent weeks regarding the ongoing issue of the failed tree-planting as part of the construction of the A14. It is assessed that some 900,000 trees planted as part of the scheme have since died due to a mixture of being planted at the wrong time of year followed by exceptionally dry weather.
Having raised this in Parliament during Transport oral questions I was granted a meeting with the Minister for Local Transport, Simon Lightwood, to discuss National Highways’ plan to rectify the issue by replanting 50,000 new saplings and clearing up the discarded tree guards now littering the landscape.
There was also an opportunity to broaden the conversation to cover a number of related issues, specifically the accompanying Environmental Land Management schemes that haven’t been maintained since their creation, as well as the now abandoned properties that were compulsory purchases by National Highways and are now boarded up and uninhabited. These should be brought back into use.
Finally I was able to raise the long-running issue of the ‘at grade’ junctions that serve the villages to the west of the A1; junctions such as those at Keyston and Bythorn. These junctions are dangerous and an accident waiting to happen. Whilst the construction of new slip roads for these junctions is unrealistic in the short-to-mid term we were able to discuss the difference that improved signage for these junctions might make as an interim measure.
I’ll continue to push these issues and will press the minister for an update in coming weeks.
