Mr Julian Sturdy, the Member of Parliament for York Outer has welcomes the Secretary of State for Transport announcement that York’s outer ring road will be one of the first schemes to receive investment from the Major Road Network fund. Announced last July, this fund targets economically important roads under local authority responsibility.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr Study said: “this is very welcome news for York and I am pleased that Chris Grayling has seen the merits in our case. Upgrading the ring road has remained one of my top priorities for the area and after debates, questions and letters to Ministers I am pleased that the Government is delivering.
“This is a big step towards ensuring that the ring road is fit for purpose and passengers can expect reasonable journey times throughout.”
Further details will be released in the spring and construction is expected to commence in 2020-21. The Major Road Network fund is raised form Vehicle Excise Duty, the proceeds of which were previously only available for trunk roads managed by Highways England.
In his speech Mr Grayling said: “We are spending record amounts on improving our roads and we want more of our busiest roads to benefit from guaranteed investment.
“These first five schemes will unlock no end of benefits for communities by improving motorists’ journeys, taking traffic away from built up areas, as well as enabling new housing to be built and creating more jobs.”