17th March - Jack Abbott meets with Lilian Greenwood to discuss Northern Bypass and traffic chaos on A14 and Orwell Bridge

Earlier this week, I met with Lilian Greenwood, the Minister for the Future of Roads, to discuss the Northern Bypass and the other infrastructure we desperately need for Ipswich and Suffolk.

Residents and businesses in Ipswich are, rightly, absolutely sick of the near daily traffic disruption on the Orwell Bridge and wider A14.

While this can cause chaos on our local road network in Ipswich and the surrounding area, the stark reality is that thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds related to the Port of Felixstowe are on the line, too.

So, while we need a number of short and medium-term mitigations – projects I also raised with the Minister – the only long-term solution to substantially and permanently relieve the pressure on our local road network is a Northern Bypass.

I am pleased the Minister has agreed to take these issues back to the Department for consideration. I will continue to make the case locally and in Westminster for the range of critical infrastructure projects we desperately need in Ipswich and Suffolk, including a Northern Bypass.

After years of these projects being kicked into the long grass, people deserve progress and change.