Liberal Democrats write to Secretary of State about A46 Bridge to Nowhere

With an original budget of £40 million this County Council project should have been completed in 2022. The aim of the new bridge is to ease traffic congestion at this very busy junction on the A46 between the historic village of Stoneleigh and the University of Warwick.

 Liberal Democrat opposition group leader Cllr Jerry Roodhouse said;

"We knew even before the County Council elections in May that the budget had increased to £57 million and that there was no completion date in sight. But in the past few weeks, local LibDem county councillor Richard Dickson from nearby Kenilworth has exercised his right as an elector to examine the details of the Council’s draft accounts for 2024/25 and now we find an even worse situation.’

‘In the past 18 months very little construction work has taken place at the junction after the bridge deck was installed in January 2023. As seen by the tens of thousands of vehicles that pass under the bridge every day, both of the wingwalls of the bridge remain unfinished. However, our detailed analysis of the County Council’s accounts for 2024/25 shows that the Council attributed expenditure of a staggering £9.9 million on this bridge project in the last financial year. This includes money spent on contractors, consultants and legal services.’

‘We spent months vainly trying to get answers from the previous Conservative administration about what was happening with this enormous project. But the Reform UK administration that was elected to the County Council in May doesn’t seem to be any better. Buried in the appendices to papers presented at the Council’s Cabinet meeting in June it was reported that a further £13.8 million had been set aside for future years’ expenditure on the project because of ‘unresolved risk items’.

‘Already Reform has had to replace its original Portfolio Holder for Transport and Planning and the administration seems more interested in talking about the Council’s flag-waving policy. Rather than prioritising an immediate statement to update local residents and visitors to Warwickshire about what is happening with this embarrassing mega-infrastructure project, the local Reform leadership says it will bring an update to Council towards the end of next month. We fear yet more delay and yet more cost. The till continues to ring.’

‘To make matters even worse, the local MP has said nothing about his concern about what’s going on at the ‘Bridge To Nowhere’. So we’ve been left with no option but to write to the Secretary of State to ask for her help to try to make progress at last. Enough is enough.’