[15
DEC 00]
WARWICKSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL NEWS
£30m Road Schemes
Given Go-Ahead
Traffic
schemes in Warwickshire costing more than £30 million have been given
the go-ahead by the government.
Deputy
Prime Minister John Prescott announced yesterday that projects in
Barford, near Warwick, Rugby, and Nuneaton will all get funding.
Jubilant
campaigners in the village of Barford were celebrating after pushing
for a bypass for more than 20 years.
Last
year the group had almost given up hope after being told that there
was very little chance of the scheme getting clearance.
But
the go-ahead has now been given for a road going around the village
and crossing a new bridge over the River Avon.
Villagers,
lead by Nick Ellis, formed a pressure group and have travelled several
times with James Plaskitt MP to meet government ministers to press
their case.
They
told of villagers being trapped at a junction as cars and lorries
drive through the main street and over a mini-roundabout, often
without even realising the roundabout is there.
Now
£6.9 million has been awarded for the project. The village on the
A429 has 16,000 vehicle movements a day thundering through to the
Cotswolds.
There
were also celebrations in Rugby as a £20 million scheme for the
Western Relief Road was granted.
It
is being built to add capacity to the town’s roads as thousands of
houses are being built. Originally the route was planned to use
sections of the old Daventry to Leamington railway line, but that is
now likely to be re-opened.
There
is also good news for people in Nuneaton, which has received £5.4
million for a traffic management scheme.
In
the plans Church Street will be pedestrianised to stop the library
being cut off from the rest of the shopping area.
This
will allow the ring road to be completed to allow better traffic flow
in the town.
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