Member of Parliament for The Cotswolds, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, went on a cold winter morning walk with Gloucestershire Highways officials to inspect the subsidence cracks on the old A40 which have led to its closure. As well as obvious cracks in the road, there is severe fracturing in the supporting wall adjacent to the highway – this shows that the entire hillside is still moving. Highways officials produced seismic graphs which proved this.

Kath Haworth, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown and Alex MacDonald

Gloucestershire County Council are hopeful that after the winter snow, rain and frost, this movement might cease and they will be able to identify the best technical solution to repair the road.

Cracks in the wall

Mr Clifton-Brown said that it would be preferable to reopen the road with only the upper carriageway open rather than having a complete closure. The problem with the old A40 is that it has relatively low vehicle usage and any solution is likely to be costly. The repair works will therefore have to compete with other roads on which the usage is much higher.

Commenting after the meeting, the MP said:

‘I will fiercely fight any permanent closure and I urge Highways officials to open the road in one form or another as soon as possible. This should certainly be sooner than 2019-20, which Gloucestershire Highways are currently proposing.’