New bid for £18m link road south of Attleborough
A graphic from the Attleborough Neighbourhood Plan, showing the proposed link road to the south of the town. Picture: Attleborough Town Council - Credit: Archant
A desperately-needed link road to the south of Attleborough could go ahead if the county council agrees to lend £18m to development promotion company.
Attleborough Mayor, Jeremy Burton. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY - Credit: Copyright: Archant 2016
Ptarmigan Land has approached Norfolk Council (NCC) for the money, which would fund a road link between the A11 London Road and Old Buckenham Road, just south of the town.
Ptarmigan is the promoter of a major strategic urban extension in the area, which will see another 4,000 homes built in Attleborough.
The town council is supporting the move, and the link road was a major issue at a public meeting about traffic concerns on January.
Jeremy Burton, Attleborough's mayor, said: 'One of the resolutions of our meeting was that the road should be built as son as possible.
'We really would like to see it built before a single brick is laid.'
Mr Burton said failing to get the road built would cause chaos in the town's already stretched traffic network.
He said: 'What we don't want is to get these 4,000 houses and no infrastructure.
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'That would not be acceptable and would bring the town centre to a standstill, bearing in mind that we are at breaking point anyway.'
The council's agenda for the meeting says: 'Ptarmigan state they will not be able to commence construction of the road until a significant number of new houses have been built.
'Current evidence suggests 1,200 is the maximum number of new houses that can be constructed before the link road must be commenced.
'Above this number of new houses, the existing roads network will not cope with the additional traffic movements.
'However, via extensive engagement with all local stakeholders including community representatives, it is clear the local community's preference is for construction of the link road to commence prior to the delivery of any houses.
'In order to meet the community's aspirations Ptarmigan Land have indicated their willingness to commence construction of the road prior to commencing building any new houses. However, they are not able to finance the associated costs directly and therefore require external finance. Consequently they have approached the county council to ascertain our willingness to provide them with a loan of approx. £18m.'
The agenda states the road would reduce existing congestion in the town centre, provide an alternative route for HGVs accessing the A11 to the north of the town, and potentially speed up the construction of the thousands of new homes planned for the town.
NCC's policy and resources committee will decide whether to further investigate funding the road at a meeting at County Hall on Monday, starting at 10am.
To find full details of the proposal, visit www.norfolk.gov.uk .
