Plan for £210m Skegness bypass shelved over funding

The Skegness relief road was estimated to cost between £180m and £210m

Plans for a relief road around Skegness have been axed over funding concerns.

Lincolnshire County Council had proposed building a route from either the north or south of the town to the A158 to ease traffic through the area.

However, highways boss Sam Edwards said the project, which was estimated to cost up to £210m, was unlikely to attract third party funding.

The plan was part of the Lincolnshire Coastal Highway scheme to improve links between Lincoln and Skegness.

In an update to councillors on Monday, Mr Edwards said a "concept paper" had concluded the proposed route had "a poor/very poor 'Benefit to Cost Ratio' score" making it difficult to secure additional funding.

He said shelving the project did not mean it would not happen and suggested there might be other funding options, including from a developer, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"There are other funding bids that may come out in the future that this aligns with absolutely perfectly," he told the meeting.

The set-back for the Skegness bypass comes after plans for a Horncastle relief road were paused in 2019.

In addition, a feasibility study for an Orby bypass indicated it was also unlikely to attract third party funding.

The council has so far allocated £7m to road schemes on the coastal highway.

A connection to the Skegness Gateway, a development of 1,000 homes, a new college and retail, business and industrial units to the west of the town, is unaffected by the relief road decision.