West Northants transport plan for next 20 years approved despite concerns over missing projects and disregarding rural communities
Concerns have been raised about missing road projects and disregarding rural communities as the council has approved its Local Transport Plan (LTP), outlining key highway projects over the next 20 years.
The plan will serve as a baseline for delivering priority transport and road improvement projects across West Northamptonshire until 2045. It is the first transport plan created by the new unitary authority and will replace the former county council’s 2012 plan.
On Thursday, March 13, West Northants Council (WNC) discussed the adoption of the plan at its full council meeting. The document details a range of proposals to make public transport an attractive more accessible option, improve its active travel offering, make transport systems and infrastructure safer and improve connectivity for all.
Priorities in the plan include several highways upgrades and traffic mitigation schemes, signal and safety improvements, bus service improvements, and work to include 20mph speed limits in residential areas among many others.
Northampton Northern Orbital ‘spectre’ deferred
During the meeting, Cllr John Shephard asked the highways member to clarify the authority’s intentions for the Northampton Northern Orbital road, which he described as a “spectre” around the town. The plans were supposed to relieve traffic from the north of Northampton and surrounding villages by linking the A5199 and Northampton North West Relief Road.
WNC has stated that, at this time, the “need, nature and deliverability” of the Orbital scheme is not defined well enough to include within the LTP. As such, it has been deferred to await the new Local Plan and undertake further work to understand the level of intervention required, its cost benefit and deliverability.
Cllr Sam Rumens made a plea to the council to keep the project “majorly at the centre of future plans”. He stated it had been on the cards for more than 50 years, appearing originally in a 1970 Northampton masterplan.
“It’s even more important every year that’s gone by to have got the [northern Orbital scheme] built because of the number of houses that we’ve got, the number of people we’ve got, cars and everything else have only increased exponentially in the last few years,” he said.
“We are so bitterly held back as a town by not having a proper road network that goes all the way around. I know you’re saying it’s deferred to look at it further- let’s not have it sit on the back of the shelf for years.”
Farthinghoe bypass project lacks ‘political will’
Farthinghoe Parish Council chair Mick Morris told members that the LTP missed a “crucial opportunity” to alleviate traffic and improve residents’ lives by making it a priority to create a bypass around the rural village to prevent problems with their notorious pinch point.
The document references an ‘A422 Farthinghoe traffic mitigation scheme’ to ease pressure on the roads through a traffic light system and other calming measures. Residents were previously told that plans for the bypass “do not stack up” and are not deliverable in the LTP period due to a lack of funding.
Cllr Ian McCord accused the administration of “lacking political will” to progress the bypass, when in other Northampton highways projects they “could manage to find the cash”.
Cllr Richard Solesbury-Timms asked: “Are you going to say to Farthinghoe you’re best off getting a lottery ticket because they’ve got more chance than us of getting the funding?”
Ward councillor for the area, Cllr Rebecca Breese, explained: “It’s important [the bypass] remains prominent in the documents because things change. In the meantime, I will pester our officers to come up with a workable plan that will ease the problems.”
Cllr Jonathan Harris also called on the council to think more broadly about the pressures faced by rural communities and villages that are “not built for traffic”. He asserted that Farthinghoe could be switched with the names of a number of villages to the north of the area and the problems would be similar.
‘Everything that we want in it’
Cabinet member for highways and transport, Cllr Phil Larratt, said: “Officers with consulted input have been working on this plan since the summer of 2023 and I hope members will agree that it’s a good piece of work which we can all support.
“It provides direction to everything we do in the highways and transport service. I’m proud of the plan we have produced and I’m confident it will provide an effective network for investment in our local transport system for the benefit of our residents.”
The LTP was guided by cross-party councillor involvement, transport stakeholder groups and a 12-week public consultation. Cllr Larratt added that following the adoption of the plan WNC’s focus will turn to the delivery of the projects to ‘flesh out’ the detail further.
Cllr Sue Sharps said: “From my point of view it has everything that we want in it. It is a piece of work for the future and I want to see as much of this delivered as possible.”
After going to a vote, the transport plan was overwhelmingly approved, with 64 members voting in favour and three abstaining. According to the council, the LTP will be reviewed every five years after its adoption.