The dualling of the A47 Acle Straight has been dealt a huge blow by the axing of a £50m roundabout revamp described as a "lynchpin" for the long-awaited scheme, claim council leaders.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in last week's autumn budget that several "unaffordable and unfunded" road projects worth a combined £1.3bn had been scrapped – including plans to upgrade the A47 Vauxhall Roundabout in Great Yarmouth.
And leaders at Norfolk County Council said the decision is a major setback in their long-standing ambition for the nine-mile Acle Straight dualling.
They said the roundabout is key to allowing that section of the A47 to be improved.
Successive governments have yet to commit to improving the Acle Straight, but the work at the Vauxhall Roundabout was designed to be compatible with future dualling.
Graham Plant, the Conservative-controlled council's cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, said: "It would have been the lynchpin for dualling the Acle Straight and that's been knocked back many years by not doing this."
Speaking at a meeting of the council's cabinet on Monday, Mr Plant said: "It seems, if we have not got a Labour MP in Great Yarmouth, we are not going to get any money from this government, which is very disappointing.
"The fight to dual the A47 continues, but it seems very unlikely this government is going to do anything for this county as far as highways is concerned."
The roundabout revamp had already been paused, following the opening of Yarmouth's Herring Bridge, which had made it less of a pinch-point.
The mooted changes were among schemes which the then prime minister David Cameron said would get a share of £300m back in 2014.
READ MORE: New details revealed about work to dual A47 in Norfolk
The other projects included dualling the A47 between Easton and North Tuddenham and from Blofield to North Burlingham, where work has started.
The revamp of Thickthorn roundabout is another of the schemes.
But uncertainty surrounds the future of that project, with work yet to start and a government spending review of transport schemes yet to be concluded.
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