Two Ely councillors have successfully joined forces to start the ball rolling on large scale improvements to the A10.

Ely Standard: Lucy Frazer MPLucy Frazer MP (Image: Archant)

Piece meal low budget options are out and instead a major upgrade is vital, say Cllr Anna Bailey and Cllr Mike Rouse, who recently received 57 votes in favour of a proposal for a study looking into options available.

Cllr Bailey said “The A10 has only received very minor, piecemeal changes over the last 40 odd years.

“This situation cannot continue. Major upgrading of this road is vital to the economic prosperity of the area and the sanity of my residents.

“The success of this motion sees the A10 moving up the priority list.”

Cllr Bailey put a motion to the county council at a meeting on May 10 calling for large scale improvements to the A10 north of Cambridge.

It was seconded by fellow Ely Councillor Mike Rouse and was passed by 57 votes for, with 4 abstentions.

This means an economic and route options study will now be carried out.

The motion comes after lobbying of central Government by Lucy Frazer, MP for South East Cambridgeshire, who gained agreement from George Osborne that he would “look closely” at a bid for upgrading the route.

Ms Frazer said: “It is important that we ease congestion along the A10. I have already raised this with the chancellor.

“I am very pleased that the county council recognises the importance of this route and I will continue to press key partners to develop this project”.

The motion recognises that the A10 north of Cambridge suffers from high levels of congestion and that this is set to worsen with the planned developments of North Ely and Waterbeach Barracks.

Work is already underway on an A10 corridor study, but the scope of the current study considers all forms of transport, is not focussed on the A10 and ends at Ely.

Cllr Bailey’s motion called for the chief executive of the county council to commission a further high level economic and route options study for the A10 north of Cambridge for use in future bidding exercises.

It also called for Cambridgeshire County Council to team up with Norfolk County Council and the two Local Enterprise Partnerships to develop a case for whole route improvement from Cambridge to Kings Lynn.

Work will now get underway to develop the business case to enable funding bids to be made.