Whether its parents on the school run or hauliers on the delivery run, from the commuters to holiday makers, village locals or those just passing through - everyone that talks to me about the roads in our county say one thing before anything else:
“The A14 is slow isn’t it?”.
It’s fantastic that infrastructure improvements like the eastern relief road got some serious cash focus in the Local Growth Fund. Some £8 million worth of investment will go some way to help deal with choke points in Bury St Edmunds.
However, a relief road here and bit of resurfacing there does not a fit for purpose, vital piece of national infrastructure make.
Starting at one end of the A14 - in Felixstowe, the UK’s largest container port and the fifth biggest in Europe. 40% of all Britain’s container trade is handled at Felixstowe. 42,500 Suffolk jobs related to the port (that’s a staggering 10% of all jobs in our county) help shift 70% of this cargo down the A14 on the way to shelves and shops across the nation.
Passing Ipswich - the county capital is a centre for regional public services, businesses and key strategic freight distribution companies. It is home to University Campus Suffolk, Ipswich Hospital, Axa, UK Power Networks and Mediterranean Shipping Company offices. People travel on the A14 from all over to work in Ipswich.
That means nearly 30% of all the UK’s goods received by shipping passes through Needham Market, Stowmarket and Bury St Edmunds along the A14. And these towns are not just conduits for the nation’s goods, but thriving centres of business in their own right.
Stowmarket is home to Muntons, the largest malted ingredient producer in the world. Bosch research and development also call the town home. In Bury resides Greene King, one of the country’s largest brewers and pub owning companies. The town also hosts one of British Sugar’s largest processing plants.
As the last stop in my constituency along the A14, Bury St Edmunds is the gateway to the rest of the country, via Newmarket and Cambridge. These two are home to the UK’s horseracing industry and “Silicon Fen” – both global players.
What’s more, the above tour along the A14 highlights only the biggest businesses in our regional economy. From Needham Market in the east to Bury St Edmunds in the west, 4,320 small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) employ 27,000 people in my constituency.
SMEs are the lifeblood of Britain’s economy and the A14 is the artery that integrates ours to the rest of the country. The region and country needs a fast, efficient A14 and not just in patches. I’m talking from one end to the other.
That’s why I’ve joined Suffolk County Council and Chamber of Commerce, the New Anglia LEP and major businesses across the region to deliver a holistic “No more delays” campaign. I’ve already raised the case for improvements to the A14 with Claire Perry MP, Minister of State for Transport in the House of Commons. She agreed she would visit the constituency to discuss the issues.
I’m a businesswoman. I know business and I know the economy is a competition. It’s a race. Let’s get Suffolk in the fast lane.
- Published in the Bury Free Press