03/10/03 - County Council to lobby Roads Minister

County Councillor, Kevan Wilkinson, Cabinet Spokesman on Highways and Infrastructure and the Council’s Director of Community Economy and Environment, Ralph Howard will push for improvements to and the dualling of the A590 when they meet Roads Minister David Jamieson, when he visits Cumbria on Monday 6thOctober.  They will also raise concerns over the potential impact of detrunking across the County.

The Minister’s visit to Cumbria was arranged after he accepted an invitation from the County Council Leader, Rex Toft to see for himself some of the major road issues in Cumbria.

County Councillor Kevan Wilkinson says,

“At long last a Government Minister will see at first hand the problems along the A590 and in particular the urgent need for the high and Low Newton bypass.  We, along with colleagues, have lobbied long and hard for improvements to this route and I’m sure the Minister will be left in no doubt as to the strength of our case and the extent of local concern.

It is of vital importance that Cumbria has a robust, main road network, given our heavy reliance on road transport.  We also want the Government to look again at proposals to de-trunk the A595/A5092 given the importance of the route has in linking West Cumbria to Furness and beyond.

In addition we’ll explain the overall need for enhanced funding for highways improvements which has become so evident given the dilemma we faced in only being able to progress one new major scheme in the next Local Transport Plan, despite robust cases also being made for both the Workington Southern Link and the Duddon Bridge Scheme.”