Spalding relief road threat to homes: it's another delay on options announcement

Spalding's Bourne Road residents face another delay before they know if their homes could be demolished to make way for Spalding Western Relief Road.

Lincolnshire County Council was due to unveil route options in early September but in the middle of the month said it would take a further fortnight.

The council now expects to reveal the options within a fortnight and have blamed the delay on the need to do "as thorough a job as possible".

Coun Richard Davies, executive member for highways, said today: "Although we hoped to have the route options study complete this week, it doesn't look like we're going to meet that time-frame.

"We're in the process of carrying out more detailed investigations to determine the relative merits of various options, including the previous allotments route and a route further to the west.

"We apologise for the delay, but we want to make sure we do as thorough a job as possible looking at all of the potential options ahead of sharing them with those potentially affected.

"We expect to have the assessment finished in the next two weeks, at which time we will contact those potentially affected before sharing the study on the council website."

He said once the options appraisal is complete, a preferred route will be put forward to the Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee for discussion and then to the council's Executive for a final decision by the end of the year.

Speaking after the previous delay in the options announcement, Bourne Road resident Amanda Halifax said she and fellow home owners had endured a summer of hell.

The county council has already given itself planning consent for the northern and southern section of the roads but members of SPARR (Spalding Pinchbeck Against the Relief Road) are considering taking the council to court for a judicial review.