John Bercow has written to the Department for Transport and to the Highways Agency urging them to give the go-ahead to this new road which will help to alleviate traffic on the A4146 in the villages of Edlesborough, Dagnall and Northall.

John said, “The then Secretary of State for Transport announced to the House as long ago as 2003 that the A5-M1 link would be built. It is now not scheduled for completion until 2015, if not later. The South East in general and my constituency in particular has been earmarked for significant house building. I do not oppose such development, but the challenge for policy makers is to ensure that we have sustainable development, i.e. manageable levels of new housing with the required infrastructure to support those levels. Among these absolutely crucial infrastructure improvements is the A4146 which has been overlooked for far too long.”

He continued, “I understand that EU air quality directives are the latest challenge to agreement on the road-building plan and the full impact of this issue will not be known until June. Naturally the environmental impact of new roads must be properly assessed. For local people, however, this will appear to be yet another road block in a highly uneven path to a sustainable traffic system. The Department for Transport and the Highways Agency must urgently review the matter”.