Northampton North-West Relief Road: Council fails in £20m grant bid

West Northamptonshire Council will consider borrowing £20m to allow the Northampton North-West Relief Road to be completed

A council will consider borrowing £20m to complete a relief road after a bid for government funding was unsuccessful.

West Northamptonshire Council had hoped to use the money for Northampton's North-West Relief Road.

The scheme will cost a total of £54.5m, but only £32.5m has currently been allocated.

The authority's cabinet will meet next week to discuss a recommendation to borrow the shortfall.

The relief road project - which has been in the pipeline for more than 30 years - will link the A428 Harlestone Road with the A5199 Welford Road.

It was granted planning consent in September 2020 and construction is scheduled to start in early 2022.

The authority had committed to a capital contribution of almost £2m on top of the money already in the pot, leaving £20m in funding to make up.

It had hoped to do that via a bid for money from the government's levelling up fund, but council papers reveal that has been unsuccessful.

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As a result, council officers have recommended the authority borrows the money.

The papers show taking out such a loan over 20 years would cost almost half-a-million pounds in the 2022-23 financial year, and a further £1.2m every year thereafter in interest.