M5 upgrade: Extra £5m for Gloucestershire scheme agreed

An additional £5 million for the first stage of a traffic improvement scheme in Gloucestershire has been approved.

The scheme will upgrade Junction 9 of the M5 near Tewkesbury and re-route the A46 to improve the flow of traffic.

The A46 runs from Gloucestershire to Lincolnshire and has been called "one of the country's most important routes".

The plan aims to alleviate congestion at peak times and support delivery of housing in the area.

The additional spending was approved on Wednesday at a Gloucestershire County Council cabinet Meeting.

In total, £8 million has now been assigned by the authority to build a business case for funding from the Department for Transport (DfT).

The proposals are in the early stages and the exact location of the planned link road is still to be determined.

The scheme is also planned to support the proposed Tewkesbury Garden Town at Ashchurch, which will provide 10,195 homes by 2041.

Public consultation on the scheme will take place later this year and construction would be expected to begin in 2024 at the earliest.

A separate scheme by the council to upgrade junction 10 of the M5 at Cheltenham has been backed with £249 million in funding from Homes England and received widespread support at a public consultation in October.