'It's a farce' - another delay to Isham bypass opening date

An Isham bypass campaigner says yet another delay to the long-awaited road’s proposed opening date is a ‘farce’.

Graham Rait has spent decades fighting for a relief road to take A509 traffic away from the village, which sees thousands upon thousands of motorists every day.

In March we reported his frustration at the planned bypass opening date being pushed back to July 2027 because North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) hadn’t submitted their proposals. That timetable forecast then slipped to winter 2027/28, which is still the date published on NNC’s website.

But the Northants Telegraph can reveal that NNC’s programme now has the opening date as summer 2028.

Mr Rait said: “It’s a farce, it really is.”

A new route for the bypass has been mapped out but it does not yet have planning permission and an outline business case for it has not yet been submitted. NNC will also have to publish a compulsory purchase order to acquire land for it and, if there are objections, there may be a public inquiry.

The scheme once had £25m earmarked – only to lose it because the remaining £15m for the scheme couldn't be found. Earlier this year the Government pledged to fully fund the bypass using cash from a scrapped leg of the HS2 rail network.

Last week NNC sent out a media release saying the preparation of plans for the bypass had taken a step forward after a decision to commit a further £790,000 in funding to the business case for it. It said the ‘urgent’ decision was taken by council leader Cllr Jason Smithers to ‘ensure the project was not delayed’. However, the media release did not say that the opening date was now summer 2028.

NNC say that the Department for Transport (DfT) has requested that the traffic modelling for the scheme is updated to reflect the latest version of the National Trip End Model - a database maintained by the DfT that is used to estimate the future growth in travel. This requires sections of both the outline business case and planning application to be updated, causing a delay in the timescale for the submission of them.

But bypass campaigner Mr Rait said he fears that the scheme still isn’t going to happen.

He said: “Even 2028 I think is pretty optimistic. I’ve reached the point where I’ve accepted it’s probably not going to happen in my lifetime.

"There are so many people who can delay it for so many reasons. It’s easy to delay and difficult to progress.”

Last night (Thursday) the decision to commit a further £790,000 in funding was rubber-stamped at NNC’s full council meeting.

Cllr Valerie Anslow (Lab, Croyland and Swanspool) questioned the timing of it – and said it’s as if the ‘bypass goes into hibernation and only comes out when it’s politically good’.

But Cllr Smithers (Con, Oundle) said it was ‘insulting’ to officers to suggest investment was coming at a time when there’s a political issue going on.

And highways portfolio holder Cllr Matt Binley (Con, Brickhill and Queensway) said nothing about the timing was to do with elections, saying it was ‘plain conspiracy theories’.

Cllr Paul Bell (Con, Brickhill and Queensway) said: “Let’s get the bloody thing built.”

Former Borough Council of Wellingborough leader Cllr Martin Griffiths (Ind, Irchester) told the Northants Telegraph he also questioned the timing of the funding announcement and said he voiced concerns in March over a request for funding then.

He said: "Now the cat is out of the bag and a further delay, or longer, has been admitted. I do hope that residents can see through the smoke and mirrors on how the Conservatives take the electorate for granted.”