Strongest indication yet that new A14 junction near Kettering will be built

A new junction on the A14 near Kettering is one step closer after the Government confirmed it would be in their road investment strategy.

Plans for junction 10A between Barton Seagrave and Cranford have been in the pipeline for years as part of the 5,500-home Hanwood Park development, with warnings that Kettering will grind to a halt without it.

If the scheme were to be excluded from RIS3 – the Government’s all-important strategy for major road investment between 2025 and 2030 – a planning condition would likely mean that house building would eventually be paused.

But, during a debate in Westminster Hall, roads minister Guy Opperman said it would be included and that it seems ‘inevitable and entirely right’ for the junction to be built.

Kettering MP Philip Hollobone told the Northants Telegraph it was the clearest and strongest response he has had on the issue yet.

He said: “I don’t think I have ever had a clearer, more definitive response from a Government minister on anything ever.

"It was made quite clear to me that if the latest planning application for Hanwood Park is approved by North Northamptonshire Council, with a decision expected on this by the end of April, the roads minister will then engage all gears to get the new junction done.

"This is great news for local residents not only in Hanwood Park itself, but also across Kettering, Barton Seagrave, Cranford and Burton Latimer, because without the new junction local roads will become increasingly clogged from the all the new traffic generated by the Hanwood Park development.”

At one point it had been hoped that work on the junction would start in 2021, but its cash allocation was deferred and then it was excluded from RIS2, which determined projects to be funded from 2020 to 2025.

If not included in RIS3, a planning condition means the Hanwood Park development has to stop at 2,750 houses until junction 10A is built. Just under 1,400 homes are already occupied, and the developer’s current housing trajectory shows that the dwellings trigger for the junction will be reached some time in 2026 or 2027.

Last year the roads minister at the time said junction 10A was one of more than 30 major projects being considered for RIS3 and indicated that it stood a ‘very good chance’.

The junction once had a £40m price tag but is now expected to be nearer £60m. The Department for Transport (DfT) is expected to pledge half of its estimated cost with Hanwood Park developers stumping up the remaining cash.