A361 Tiverton North Devon Link Road: Work paused

Phase one of the project has been completed

Plans to complete a new junction on a main Devon road have been put on hold due to escalated costs.

Mid Devon District Council's cabinet agreed on Tuesday to pause phase two of the junction on the A361 North Devon Link Road at Tiverton.

The work involves adding a bridge across the link road along with northern slip roads and landscaping.

An area for new housing cannot be built on without the work being completed.

However, this is a longer-term aspiration and will not affect the current housing projects, the council was told.

The council was already short of the previous £10.1 million estimated cost, having only secured £8.2 million of funding from Homes England, but a previous cabinet meeting in July heard how an updated estimate would now "significantly exceed" the earlier one.

The increased amount, which was not revealed, was blamed on significant rises in construction costs, volatile prices of materials and the need for more money set aside to cover any other costs, as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

After temporarily pausing the project in the summer, the council asked officers to find either additional funding or revise the scheme to make it affordable whilst still achieving its "core objectives".

In an update to members, Richard Chesterton, cabinet member for planning and economic regeneration, said this proved unsuccessful.

Asking cabinet to support an indefinite pause, he said: "Clearly, this is not a recommendation which is made lightly, but it is felt to now be the most sensible course of action available".

As well as agreeing to pausing the scheme, the cabinet also backed a second recommendation for officers to liaise with Homes England about "identifying alternative options to utilise its funding" to support other aspects of the eastern urban extension.

Southern side slip roads were completed four years ago along with hundreds of new homes, as part of the Tiverton Eastern Urban Extension.