Leicestershire County Council is set to approve a large local major (LLM) scheme whose cost has effectively doubled to £127.5m since 2018.
The North and East Melton Mowbray Distributor Road is part of a proposed new road said to be needed to support the planned growth of the town.
The scheme has been designed to improve access to potential housing and employment, reduce congestion within Melton Mowbray and improve access to the town centre.
When the scheme was awarded £49.5 LLM funding in 2018, its cost was estimated at £63.5m.
A report submitted to the council’s Scrutiny Commission last week by its director of environment and transport, Ann Carruthers, noted that the revised forecast scheme cost has increased to £116.1m, meaning that allowing for a +/- 10% change in costs it could outturn at £127.7m.
The Scrutiny Commission agreed to back the continued delivery of the scheme, ahead of a decision from the council’s Cabinet on 16 December as to whether to submit a full business case to the Department for Transport to release the LLM funding.
In addition to the £49.5 LLM cash, a further of £4m will come from the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, as well as an anticipated £14m of developer contributions, in part forward-funded by the council, which also expects to receive over £9m for the sale of land whose development is dependent upon the road.
The report noted that any cost on top of this – currently estimated at £51m – would need to be provided by the council. It added that any additional costs must be offset by savings elsewhere in the Council’s budget.
The report also noted that when the scheme was initially approved the only outlay to the council was the cashflow costs associated with the need to forward fund the road in advance of developer contributions being received.
Ms Carruthers is the chair of the Transport and Connectivity Board of council directors body ADEPT. Her report notes that the current difficult financial situation due to rising inflation, officers are lobbying the Government via ADEPT to highlight the situation, ‘which applies across the country’, and seek support for additional funding.
Last year the county council and Melton Borough Council reached agreement over the funding of the £35m southern leg of the distributor road, also linked to new homes, after a wrangle over Housing Infrastructure Fund cash, developer contributions and education costs.
