[R]ory Stewart, MP for Penrith and The Border, has met with representatives from Highways England to discuss their plans for the A66.
Mr Stewart has campaigned for better roads for Cumbria since his election in 2010 and has been monitoring the situation on the A66 for some time. He arranged this meeting with representatives from Highways England in order to hear their plans for reducing accidents and to receive an update on the dualling of the carriageway.
Jackie Alan presented her proposals to Rory, which included improvements to a number of junctions between Brough and Penrith.
He was then updated on the progress of the project to dual the Trans-Pennine section of the A66. This follows an earlier meeting in which Rory and Highways England discussed the impending closure of the A66 for seven consecutive weekends starting 7 September 2018. These £5 million works will see reconstruction and resurfacing between Kirkby Thore and Low Moor and will bring the section up to modern standards. Rory took this opportunity to share communities’ concerns about the impact that these works will have on their homes and businesses.
Commenting on this meeting, Rory said: “We have had an extremely useful and productive meeting. I am satisfied that there are plans in place to improve the A66 and I was interested to hear developments to the ambitious plan for its dualling. I would like to thank Jackie and her team for meeting with me and for pledging to keep the public well informed of future developments.”
