A30 Chiverton to Carland Cross roadworks compensation calls denied

People living close to a major three-year roadwork scheme on Cornwall's A30 say they have been denied compensation.

The £330m project to dual the road between Carland Cross and Chiverton has cost some small businesses money and "split communities", it is claimed.

National Highways revealed the A30 had been closed 150 times but said it would deliver major benefits for Cornwall.

Nick Simmonds-Screech, project manager, said no compensation was available.

He said: "There is no mechanism in place that will actually provide for compensation.

"The focus is on the long-term benefits it will deliver to the local area and their businesses."

Mr Simmonds-Screech said: "We constantly engage with the local communities and business to understand if there are improvements we can make to improve their connectivity."

He said the new road was due to open "in line with its aspiration by the end of winter 2023/24" but would not confirm a date.

Draft parish council minutes, seen by the BBC, for a meeting held last month suggest the new road may not open until the end of April 2024 due to weather-related challenges, with some local road closures reopening as late as September.

Construction officially began early in 2020 but was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Roger Trethewy, an agricultural machinery contractor south of the A30 in St Allen, estimates he has lost thousands of pounds due to a local road closure lasting for nearly three years.

The diversion has added about a 12-mile round trip to reach many of his clients who are based north of the A30, adding costs due to extra fuel, time and therefore wages.

He said: "Our original route to the A30, I feel they could have worked on that a long time ago and worked on that much sooner - it's still not open now."

In addition, he said displaced traffic had caused heavy congestion on country lanes during the scheme, causing a "nightmare" before road signs were later improved.

Jonathan McCulloch, chair of St Allen Parish Council, said he believed 95% of local people were "delighted" the new road was being built.

He added there was a "great working relationship" with project leaders, however, there was a "fundamental lack of north-south connectivity" built in to the design structure in the early stages.

One farmer had part of his land compulsorily purchased for the new road told the BBC his farm had been "spilt in half" and its "future viability has been left threatened".

He added: "There's a perception that they buy you off and people do well out of it, but the compensation isn't nearly enough to replace the land taken."

National Highways has not revealed how much land has been compulsorily purchased or temporarily acquired.

It said it followed standard process with any land purchase to ensure that people get market value, which is also "ratified by the district valuer who give an independent opinion on that value".

Over the next 60 years the scheme is predicted to result in:

Construction has involved:

Jena Power, who owns a hair salon on the original A30 near Chiverton, said she had lost clients "indefinitely" who have been put off by the drastically changing road layout.

She said on the first weekend closure customers were "turned away" and she estimated she lost up to £500 over that weekend but was refused compensation by National Highways.

She said the agency had worked with her since then to keep access open for clients, but several had cancelled during the many A30 weekend closures, complaining of "massive detours".

There are countless other local people for which the cost is also hard to count.

One young father in the village of Zelah, who did not wish to be named, said he "definitely" felt people living there should be offered compensation.

"Everyone's been inconvenienced financially and mentally by this," he said.

Another resident called Sue, said navigating the roadworks had doubled her mileage and petrol costs when volunteering at a foodbank at Threemilestone.

"It's been hell," she said.

Retired resident Susan Hallett said: "We have got to the point where we are pretty much sick to death of it".

Nick Simmonds-Screech, project manager, said he was "proud" of the scheme and it would ultimately save lives while roughly halving journeys to seven minutes on the nine-mile stretch.

He said: "We are going to be improving safety along this nine-mile section of the A30, reducing congestion, improving journey reliability, improving local connectivity, protecting and enhancing the environment and delivering massive economic benefits."

He added: "We've closed the A30 about 20% of the construction duration, so we've had about 150 closures over the lifespan of the project so far and we have a few more to come."

He said he could not comment on whether the scheme would go over-budget until completion.

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