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Road Traffic Control: Lancashire

Answer

On 29 January the Government announced a £17.2m expansion of the Growth Deal with the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership. We understand the LEP intends to use around £1.85m of that additional funding to support transport interventions to support growth. This is in addition to the £179.4m Local Growth Fund support that we allocated to local transport improvements in last July’s Growth Deal with the LEP, supporting delivery of 16 transport projects across Lancashire, including the Burnley to Pendle Growth Corridor.

This funding is in addition to £49.9m integrated transport block allocated to the 3 Lancashire transport authorities (Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire County Council) since the 2010 Spending Review, together with £98.6m for highways maintenance. In addition, we have announced a further £55.2m integrated transport block funding and £136.8m highways maintenance funding for these authorities covering the period 2015/16 to 2020/21. We have also given the go ahead to two local major schemes in Lancashire, the Heysham Link Road and Pennine Reach, both of which are under construction and have been supported by over £142 million of Government funding. A further £5.7 million local pinch point funding is addressing local congestion hotspots in Blackpool, Blackburn and on the A582 near Preston.

The Government launched the Roads Investment Strategy on 1 December 2014. It contains firm proposals to deliver the A585 Windy Harbour to Skippool Bypass, which will tackle congestion on the main route to Fleetwood, as well as a new Junction 2 on the M55, to support links between Lancashire’s Enterprise Zone sites at Samlesbury and Warton as well as support future housing growth in Preston.

The Highways Agency is due to shortly complete over £14.3 million pinch point fund investment to relieve traffic congestion at four hotspots in Lancashire on the A585 - Windy Harbour Junction and Bourne Way to West Drive, M6 junction 32 and M55 junction 1, and M65 junction 5.

The Government and Lancashire County Council are also investing heavily in improvement of the rail network in Lancashire, including the electrification of lines between Blackpool, Preston and Manchester, the re-opening of the Todmorden Curve, a new station at Buckshaw Parkway and a commitment for the new franchises for Northern and TransPennine Express to deliver new trains, more capacity and replace Pacers.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

228333

Session

2014-15

Subjects

Road traffic control Lancashire

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk