Lincolnshire County Council says it is not progressing a bypass bid for Whaplode – but campaigners vow to fight on

Campaigners say the fight goes on for a long-awaited bypass despite the fact council bosses say there are no plans to progress with a fresh bid due to the forecasted £87million cost.

People living in Whaplode have been fighting for many years for a new road to move the thousands of lorries and cars which rumble through the centre of the village on the A151 every day.

Lincolnshire County Council says it will not be progressing plans for a bypass for the village after a feasibility study found that the scheme would be unlikely to attract Government funding as it would not provide enough benefits or value for money.

The report looked at constructing a three mile route from Delgate Bank in Weston to the A17 near Holbeach and highlighted a number of constraints – including diverting high voltage pylons – with an estimated cost of £87.4million.

However the results of the ‘poor quality’ report are being disputed by Holbeach Rural councillor Peter Coupland – who says it has not taken into account the impact on residents and real time savings for motorists.

Coun Coupland, who launched the fresh bypass bid, is challenging the finding that the bypass would save motorists 20 to 30 seconds – and estimates that it would in fact be three minutes.

He said: “I think the report itself is flawed and it is just a desk top survey. No real data has been taken on present traffic flows and the condition of travelling along High Road.

More stories like this delivered straight to your inbox every morning - sign up to The Briefing here.

“They have looked at the benefit to the motorist but have not taken into consideration any environmental impact to people living in High Road.

“I am disputing a lot of the facts in the report and I am going to ask for a re-assessment.

“This is an important road – it is vital for workers, for industry and needs to be right for the people of Whaplode.”

The county council has spent £30,000 on carrying out the feasibility study in recent months.

It has found that the most likely cost of constructing the three mile road is forecasted to be £87.4million.

Among the main constraints found in the report would be the significant diversion for utilities including an extremely high voltage set of cables set on pylons

Other issues would include the ground has poor has poor engineering properties and a high-water table along with concerns about flooding.

Plus the route would run through privately owned farmland which would need to be acquired at substantial cost and cause disruption to over 40 private landowners

Coun Richard Davies, the county’s executive member for highways, said: "We recently carried out a feasibility assessment looking into the prospect of building a Whaplode bypass.

"What we found was that, based on the Department for Transport's scoring system for funding, this project wouldn't offer enough benefits or value-for-money to attract government money towards the £85m-plus scheme.

"As a result, we’ve decided not to progress this idea any further for the time being. This doesn’t necessarily mean a Whaplode bypass will never be built, but it does mean another funding source would be needed before we progress to the next step – the design and business case stage – which would cost £2-4m."

People living in Whaplode have been calling for a bypass for the village since the early 2000s and the speed limit was reduced from 40mph to 30mph.

A traffic study conducted by volunteers in autumn 2021 recorded 15,000 traffic movements in a 12 hour period - over 1,000 were lorries.

What do you think? Should Whaplode have a bypass? Post a comment below.