Decision day looming for funding southern link to Melton bypass
Leicestershire County Council’s cabinet will decide if it will accept a government contribution of £15million towards the £28million cost of the south section of the road and also whether it will stump up the remainder of the cost, before recouping it through contributions from developers who build the required houses in that part of town.
County councillors decided in March to hold back on the funding because they felt it was too much of a risk to expect those payments to be made back to the authority due to the absence of an adequate masterplan being provided by Melton Borough Council.
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This evoked an angry response from the borough council, which felt it had provided a sufficient development framework, and officials have been working against the clock since then to produce a definitively viable plan.
Agreement was reached on one yesterday (Wednesday) by the borough’s cabinet, which backed a masterplan to build three new schools to support the anticipated 2,114 new homes in the Melton South Sustainable Neighbourhood and a ‘Local Centre’, to include shops, a community hall, leisure facilities and potentially a medical centre, to act as the town’s second GP surgery.
County councillors will be asked now to decide on Tuesday if this newly-approved masterplan provides enough guarantees for their authority to go ahead with funding for the southern link to the bypass, also known as the Melton Mowbray Distributor Road (MMDR).
Borough council leader, Councillor Joe Orson, praised the council’s officers for coming up with the plan in a relatively short space of time.
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He told yesterday’s meeting: “I thought we were asking our officers to do the impossible to come up with this plan so quickly but they have moved mountains to get it done.
“We can’t do anymore to meet the requirements of Leicestershire County Council to enable them to accept the government funding.”
His sentiments were echoed by deputy leader, Councillor Leigh Higgins, who told cabinet colleagues: “This masterplan is a very good document.
“Delivering this southern road section sooner is good for Leicestershire as well as Melton.
“It makes total economic sense.”
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Funding remains in place for building the north and east sections of the MMDR, connecting the A606 Nottingham Road, Scalford Road, Melton Spinney Road, A607 Thorpe Road (A607) and the A606 Burton Road.
Work is due to start next summer and it is hoped the proposed southern section will be constructed at the same time.
That could rely now on funding being agreed at Tuesday’s county council meeting.
An item on the agenda refers to the need to decide on this with a gross investment of around £160million needed to provide the infrastructure Melton will need - roughly £100million for roads and £60million for schools - with governnent pledging £65million of it.
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A report to go before councillors states: “Most of the remaining costs would have to be recouped in later years through developer contributions.
“There are evidently significant financial risks to the authority.”