Norfolk: Fresh funds sought for A140 bypass

Money to build a £21m bypass will have to be found from other sources as government funding has been refused - reports the Eastern Daily Press.

Work on the long-awaited A140 bypass at Long Stratton cannot start because the project was not given priority status by the government last year. South Norfolk Council is now looking at alternative ways to find the money.

A shortage of government money has forced choices to be made between wider regional schemes and smaller-scale projects like the Long Stratton bypass.

Despite the benefits of such local schemes to traffic-choked towns and villages, it's the regional schemes that are currently getting the limited government funding available.

Alternatively contributions from housing developers could also be used to pay for the bypass, which would have the capacity to remove around 20,000 cars a day from the village, but in return a large number of houses would need to be built.

This is yet another example of the government not having enough money to make all the improvements to our infrastructure that are needed.

So it's surely completely inappropriate for them to be intending to reward the audit-failing EU with a 63% increase in payments - an extra £2.5bn a year on top of the £3.5bn we're already paying.

The £21m needed for this bypass is less than TWO days worth of the money the government wants to hand the EU. Which is a better use for that money?

And where do Norfolk's MPs stand ... will they be supporting the bypass, or approving even more cash for the wasteful EU?