HUNDREDS of millions of pounds have been written off as a major improvement scheme for the A12 has been scrapped.
Earlier this month, news about the widening scheme between Colchester and Chelmsford being cancelled sparked a wave of outrage among road users, residents, and politicians.
The latest annual report by the Department for Transport now confirms approximately £250million has been written off by National Highways due to the cancellation of the A12 project and A47 Wansford to Sutton dualling scheme.
The £1.2billion project would have widened a 15-mile stretch of road from Chelmsford to the A120.
It is used by about 90,000 vehicles a day.
A National Highways spokesperson said: “Operating and maintaining 4,500 miles of motorways and major A roads within our funding requires careful financial management, and we do everything we can to make sure our projects deliver value for money.
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"Some of the costs incurred were unavoidable, however we made the utmost effort to close down projects at the safest and most cost-effective stage."
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged in a parliamentary debate earlier this month the disappointment and frustration of many due to the cancellation.
She said: “The simple truth is that we inherited a series of commitments that could not be afforded, so we had to take the difficult decision not to progress some projects. National Highways will now work to bring those projects to a close.
“I will say that on the A12, if there are individual, small-scale interventions that could unlock or address particular problems, we would be happy to look at those.”
Colchester MP Pam Cox shared her disappointment about the cancellation earlier this month.
She said: "The A12 widening scheme was supposed to ease congestion and make the road safer.
"What’s most shocking is the revelation in the Department for Transport’s annual report that the previous government wasted £250 million and didn’t allocate a single penny to actually build the scheme. That’s a quarter of a billion pounds of public money wasted by the Tories.
"This is the legacy of the previous Conservative government: grand infrastructure promises made without proper planning, funding, or accountability. They committed to projects they couldn’t deliver, and now communities are paying the price.
"The decision to treat this as a ‘non-adjusting’ event in the accounts may satisfy the accountants, but it won’t satisfy the people of Essex who were promised better. I will continue to fight for real investment for Colchester that actually delivers for local people.”
North Essex and Harwich MP Sir Bernard Jenkin echoed the upset about the money wasted on not completing the proposed scheme, saying: "The cancellation of these schemes is a scandalous waste of taxpayers’ money.
"I would still urge the government to invest in the A12, not just because we need the widening, but to avoid squandering the value of all the cost of preparing this scheme, which was fully shovel-ready to go.”
Fellow Conservative MP for Witham, Priti Patel, joined Sir Bernard as she said: “Buried in the DFT Annual Accounts published today, Labour admit they will be writing off £250m of taxpayers’ money due to their decision to cancel the A12 Widening Scheme and the A47 dualling scheme.
“They’ve literally thrown taxpayers’ money down the drain with their choice to scrap the A12 Widening Scheme.”
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