If you travel the A11 you will know that some road schemes are more needed than others. And the decision to press ahead with the dualling of this road, announced yesterday by the Secretaries of State for Transport and Communities and Local Government, will be welcome news.
And we welcome the decision too, though initially we objected to the proposal. Roads through fragile, internationally important wildlife habitat usually doesn’t get that response – and it’s worth looking at why there is a great deal of satisfaction in yesterday’s announcement.
The section of the A11 that runs from the Fiveways roundabout to the Thetford bypass has become a dangerous bottleneck – and no-one was in any doubt about that. We believed that it was possible to proceed with the work and offset the predicted environmental impacts on the Brecks – and that was where we got to. In parallel to the road construction, new habitat creation will mitigate the impact of the road. If you are interested in the full details – and there a lot of them – you can, here.
There was some tough talking but the close working between ourselves, Natural England and the Highways Agency meant that we were able to withdraw our objection confident that road improvement won’t harm any of the wildlife the Brecks is important for, including stone curlews (just starting to arrive back after the winter), nightjars and woodlarks.
Stone curlews are just starting to return to the Brecks - ready for the breeding season.
So, if a road ever needed an important milestone – this is it. More widely, it shows that development and effective protection of the natural world can go together, when the circumstances are right.
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