Urgent plea to PM for motorway junction funding

Pleas have been made to Prime Minister Andy Burnham to provide the funding needed to upgrade an M5 junction.

Highways chiefs have been working on plans for a new junction 9A to the south of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire County Council has said the "traffic busting" scheme, estimated to cost up to £930m, would also allow for the building of up to 25,000 homes and create at least 100 hectares of employment land.

Liberal Democrat councillor Julian Tooke, who is responsible for planning and infrastructure, made a direct plea to the new prime minister during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Last month, the former prime minister Keir Starmer said a £15bn rise in military spending would come from cutting investment budgets in other areas - including £700m in savings from roads projects.

This caused concern among councillors in Gloucestershire the M5 scheme "may get sacrificed".

Tooke has urged the new prime minister to honour his commitment to listen to what local communities want, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Tooke said: "I feel so passionately about this. I really want a decision to be made as soon as possible so that we know where we are. Please stop keeping us hanging on. It's not fair."

Vernon Smith, Reform UK's group leader on the council, said officers and councillors had spent years of hard work getting the Junction 9 scheme to this point and accused the council's Lib Dem administration of "dither and delay".

"Residents in Tewkesbury and Ashchurch need this project to relieve congestion, and they deserve an administration that can be trusted to deliver it," he said.

The Department for Transport said it would not comment on funding prospects for junction 9 at this stage.

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