News that Dr Andrew Boswell has launched yet another legal challenge opposed to the A47 Improvement Projects is very disappointing and frustrating for us all.

This has dragged on too long. All of us who use the A47 are paying the price for Dr Boswell’s need to make a point.

On behalf of the people of Mid Norfolk and all of us who have campaigned for years for dualling this road, I urge him to drop it. There is nothing “green” about congestion, pollution, accidents and flooding on the A47. It needs dualling.

Please Dr Boswell – continue campaigning on climate change – but stop blocking the A47 dualling. You’re not doing the environmental cause any favours.

To see my previous comments on Dr Boswell’sefforts, please scroll below.

To see the latest EDP article, please click here

Further details of my wider campaign ‘Making Our Roads Fit for the 21st Century’ can be found here

23 February 2024

Statement – A47 Ruling

For 30 years, Norfolk has campaigned for A47 dualling. I, myself, have been on the case for 15 years, working with fellow Norfolk MPs, the A47 Alliance and the EDP – and was delighted to get the then Prime Minister to Mid Norfolk back in 2014 to agree the next phase of A47 improvements.

So, why has it then taken over 10 years to deliver these vital works?

Because Dr Andrew Boswell and a small group of eco-campaigners keep holding up these crucial projects through endless legal wranglings – while we are forced to suffer the terrible consequences of wholly inadequate safety and deadly accidents, as well as face regular flooding disruption and sitting in pollution caused by constant congestion.

And who is paying for this? We are. While Dr Boswell crowdfunds his legal costs and the taxpayer is left to foot the much more substantial part of the bill.

Enough is enough. This has to stop.

Of course, we cannot go on covering our country in commuter housing estates and continuing to build new roads anywhere. However, the A47 has been a vital, blocked artery across our county for decades – lethal in so many places and stifling Norfolk’s economic potential.

There is nothing “green” about the flooding, pollution, congestion and deadly accidents that the A47 in its current form entails.

Dualling will save lives. Dr Boswell’s constant blocking of these projects will cost them.

I urge Dr Boswell and his fellow eco-campaigners to stop holding Norfolk to ransom and instead allow Norfolk to get on and deliver these crucial improvements.

To read more on my work on this issue, please visit my ‘Making Our Roads Fit For the 21st Century’ campaign page here