You may have already read the front page article in the latest edition of the Sutton Focus “Cash-strapped East Cambs council to spend £1M on A14”. I thought it would be useful to provide a little more background and to bring you up to date with the latest developments.

Conservative-run East Cambs District Council plans to give the government £1 Million towards the cost of upgrading the A14 and turning it into a toll road. This is despite the council needing to find £1 Million in savings by 2015, including a £400,000 gap created by botched plans for parking charges in Ely.

Major national infrastructure projects such as the A14 upgrade are usually financed by the government, sometimes with additional money from the European Union (EU) and major businesses who will benefit. For example the parallel improvements of the rail link from Felixstowe to the Midlands is partially funded by EU money and the owners of Felixstowe port are also making a contribution. So why should East Cambs Council Taxpayers have to make a contribution to the A14 toll road?

Worst still, none of the A14 upgrade work takes place in East Cambridgeshire but the toll road could well cause problems for our area. There is an obvious route from Newmarket through Soham, Haddenham, Earith and Huntingdon for lorry drivers trying to avoid the A14 tolls when they are introduced. When the Ely bypass is completed there is a real danger Sutton will also see lorries avoiding the toll.

The issue came to a head last week at East Cambs district council when Lib Dem councillors put forward a proposal to reject the Conservative plans. At the end of a heated debate there was a very close vote, with two Conservative councillors breaking ranks to support the Lib Dem proposal and another Conservative abstaining. Unfortunately this was not enough and the Lib Dem proposal was defeated by 20 to 17. The issue is however far from closed and Lib Dems at East Cambs will continue to campaign against the plan.