Cabinet agrees Cliftonville Road improvements for Northampton

The works to Cliftonville Road have been approved by the county council cabinet

The county council is seeking improvements to the Cliftonville Road corridor so that traffic can be diverged from the inner ring road around the town centre, particularly Cheyne Walk and York Road, which it says will have benefits for air quality.

The scheme proposes a slight widening of Cliftonville Road from Bedford Road to the South Entrance of Northampton General Hospital to create thee lanes of traffic - two northbound and one southbound.

There would also be an upgrade of the Cliftonville Road/Billing Road/Alfred Street and St Edmund Street/Wellingborough Road junctions.

Cabinet papers showed where the works would take place

The scheme was agreed by the county council's cabinet this afternoon (May 14) at One Angel Square.

Cabinet member Councillor Ian Morris said: "We are very good at finding funding for infrastructure projects, and this is a good news story."

He added that the borough council was potentially willing to invest in the scheme, but that they had some reservations.

Concerns over air quality were raised by Councillor Winston Strachan, but Councillor Morris responded: "There will be a consultation in June, and we would encourage you to help inform that. We will take everything into account at the end of the consultation."

The county council has managed to secure £1.814m of government funding from the National Productivity Investment Fund to deliver the scheme, which will be matched with £777,000 of local funding.

Construction work is expected to last from October 2019 until next summer.