Kate writes a bi-weekly column for the Burton Mail. This column was originally featured in the 13th August print edition.
For the past few months, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, I know many of my constituents have been working from home. For some, unexpectedly working from home has worked surprisingly well and the time gained, that would usually be spent travelling, has allowed them to get more done as well as freeing up time to do other things. For those that miss the hum of an office, this has been a painstakingly difficult period not being face to face with colleagues and having to juggle various other tasks such as monitoring the kids’ home-schooling work.
One of the things that unites us all whichever side of that debate you are on is the commute should you need to get in and out of Burton. For many years now residents have been calling for a third Trent river crossing for Burton which would help ease traffic congestion and radically improve journey times. It is the experience of many commuters locally that during peak times, traffic builds up and Burton’s roads quickly reach capacity and become gridlocked.
Knowing the frustrations of this well myself, I was delighted last week when the Government announced that as part of its new £900million Getting Building Fund, a development site in South Derbyshire would receive funding with a share of this cash allocated to begin preparatory work on a new Trent river crossing at Drakelow. The proposals would also see the potential new bridge linking up to the A38 creating a southern by-pass for the town which would have a noticeable easing of traffic on Burton’s existing roads, radically cutting air pollution in the town as a result and significantly reduce the number of HGVs using St. Peter’s Bridge.
Now we must make it happen and I will not let this opportunity go a miss. With a ready-made plan and the cash now on the table to kickstart the development of these proposals, making this a reality for Burton will be a top priority for me. I have already had discussions with local councillors and going forward I will be working closely with local parish councils, Staffordshire County Council and Highways England to ensure that the new roads are sympathetic to existing communities.
I will also be lobbying Ministers to get the bridge to a shovel-ready stage as soon as possible alongside my neighbouring MP for South Derbyshire, Heather Wheeler, who I pay tribute to for working on this issue for some years.
There is a lot of work ahead, and several hurdles to overcome, but I am in no doubt about the benefits of a third Trent crossing for Burton, both economical and to residents’ every day lives, and I will work flat out to make to make this ready-made solution happen.
