Anne-Marie Trevelyan held one of her regular update meetings with Mark Stoneman yesterday, who runs the Highways England A1 in Northumberland team.
Those of you who subscribe to the A1 updates will know the plans are now with the Planning Inspectorate which is part of the legal side of the process. Each fortnight, Highways England are set a deadline for more planning documents which they remain on schedule to provide to the Inspectorate. That process is due to be completed by 5th July.
You can keep an eye on the progress of that HERE.
Throughout March, site visits will be taking place to enable to Inspectorate to examine areas in person. The Highways England team are working out how that can be done in a covid-secure manner but have assured me they see no reason to delay those visits as a result of covid.
As you will no doubt be aware, there is work taking place already. These are the environmental studies which will inform the very detailed final designs. There are also 800 archaeological trenches open, which is reflective of an area of land which is relatively under-developed.
The timescale for the rest of the phases are:
5th July – All documents and reports are with the Planning Inspectorate
Summer 2021 – Construction teams can begin to plan the detail of the works
October 2021 – Decision from the Planning Inspectorate
January 2022 – Final decision from the Secretary of State and discharge of duties
Summer 2022 – Work begins
You can stay updated on the scheme, and review all the relevant documents HERE.
