Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Member of Parliament for The Cotswolds, has warmly welcomed Gloucestershire County Council’s proposal to enable traffic to use the old A40 at Northleach.

Sir Geoffrey visited the stretch of road at the beginning of 2018 with Gloucestershire Highway’s officials and saw first-hand the subsidence cracks on the old A40 that have led to its closure.

During this visit, Sir Geoffrey recommended that it would be preferable to reopen the road with only the upper carriageway open rather than facing a complete closure. It has always been difficult to reach a desirable result for this road as its relatively low vehicle usage would make any solution expensive.

Gloucestershire Highways proposals would cost in the region of £55,000 to implement with funding potentially coming from Highways local and community match funding. This would allow the old A40 to be reduced to a single carriageway in conjunction with improvements to the defective drainage and required singing and lining to deter HGVs from using the route.

Commenting on the news, Sir Geoffrey said:

“I am very pleased that a solution is on the horizon for this important connecting road between Northleach and the new A40 to the north.

“On my original visit to this unused stretch of road I was adamant that such a road should be open for motorists and pedestrians to travel on. I will of course be watching developments closely to ensure that these plans come to fruition and I will continue to work hard to improve infrastructure in the Cotswolds.”