Colchester's new £100m link road cost spirals by £21m

The cost of a planned £100m road to enable development of a 9,000-home garden town has spiralled by about £21m, a council has said.

The A133/A120 link road and a rapid transport system to the east of Colchester was to be built with £99m of government money.

However, Essex County Council said extra funding was needed and also requested the deadline for completion be extended by a year to August 2025.

The issues will be discussed next week.

The government had allocated £99m of Housing Infrastructure Fund money for the delivery of the link road and a rapid transport system to enable the development of a new garden town on the Tendring and Colchester border.

The county council - which gave planning permission for the road at the time costed at £70m in November 2021 - admitted there was a risk that Homes England and the Treasury would not be willing to fund the cost escalation of £21.25m in full, or agree to the programme extension, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council is currently negotiating land acquisition bids, which could add both to the cost and the time-scale of the project.

The council said that before it can begin construction of the road, it needed to secure ownership of the relevant land.

A spokesman said: "Whilst it remains the ambition to acquire land by agreement, [the council] is preparing compulsory purchase orders to ensure the overall programme can be met."

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