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NDR Less Than 0.3% Funded - Greens Demand Road Scheme Is Abandoned

3rd November - As the County Council present a large scale plan of the proposed NDR route, Green councillors call for the scheme to be abandoned.

Key points:

  • Less than 0.3% of the funding money has been secured (see table below)
  • Olympic developments will push the cost up or delay the road indefinitely
  • Post Stern government policy will halt all road building
  • Northern suburb rat running which could be sorted now. Instead it will continue indefinitely as NDR planning lurches on
  • Transport infrastructure for new housing in NE Norwich would be better served by integrated transport that could be developed now

The Green Party have analysed the funding arrangements and found that so far less than 0.3% of the required funding has been secured. The NDR funding plan includes £10m from Norwich Growth Point (NGP) Status and £10m from the DfT Transport Innovation fund (TIF). Yet, the Government has made just £2m available for the city for NGP, and just £0.2m has been provided under TIF.

The Council still has to make a successful major scheme business case to the Government to get £61m RFA money that underpins the whole scheme. Only £0.2m has been secured so far, and Monday’s Cabinet papers talk of needed Prudential Borrowing to "top up shortfalls".

Funding Source Needed Secured Notes
Private Finance Initiative (PFI)£0£0Excluded as funding source
Prudential Borrowing£??£0Cabinet concede that PB will be needed to top-up other shortfalls
Growth Point funding£10m£0Only £2m for whole city
Transport Innovation Funding£10m£0.2m 
Developer Contributions£15-20m£0 
Regional Funding Allocations£61m£0County still has to win money on basis of "Major Scheme Business Case"
All the project costs will be subject to above usual cost pressures as development of infrastructure for Olympic games takes off across South East England.

County Councillor Andrew Boswell said "It is hard to understand the Cabinet's optimism – the funding figures just don't add up. Given they still have less than 0.3% of the money, the Cabinet members will need to mortgage their homes to make this a runner. In any case, I think that the Stern report has really shaken people up about climate change – its crazy to be planning a big road building scheme now when the government is likely to halt road building very soon to meet much the stricter emission targets needed to tackle climate change post-Stern."

County Councillor Chris Hull added, "the new homes being developed would be much better served by an integrated, sustainable transport system that encourages people to cycle and walk, and provides reliable public transport into the community at less than the cost of driving. The NDR scheme is being spun as helping to reduce rat running, but this could be prevented now by some very modest road alterations. Why should residents in North Norwich have to wait for this road, which may never happen, to tackle rat running when it could be done now at a fraction of the cost".