A417 Loop Scheme petition handed to Downing Street

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Member of Parliament for The Cotswolds, today led a delegation to hand in Gloucestershire County Council’s petition supporting the A417 Loop Scheme to Number 10 Downing Street.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Member of Parliament for The Cotswolds, today led a delegation to hand in Gloucestershire County Council’s petition supporting the A417 Loop Scheme to Number 10 Downing Street.

Mr Clifton-Brown was joined by Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council; Dr Diane Savory OBE DL, Chairman of GFirst, Gloucestershire’s Local Enterprise Partnership; Laurence Robertson MP and Richard Graham MP. Gloucestershire’s two other Conservative Members of Parliament, Mark Harper MP and Neil Carmichael MP had also originally planned to attend.

The petition, which currently has around 5,000 signatures, is another step in the campaign for the A417 to be included in the Government’s 2015 spending priorities so that the work can begin before 2020.

Commenting after handing the petition in Mr Clifton-Brown said “I was very pleased to have the opportunity to hand in this petition to Number 10 Downing Street today. It follows from the Highways Agency confirming that the scheme is on the short list for works to be carried out.

This is the first time that all three concerned elements involved have had the opportunity to come together in support of one scheme to solve the ‘Missing Link’, Local Authorities led by Gloucestershire County Council, the Local Enterprise Partnership and the County’s Members of Parliament.

I am currently gathering support from Members of Parliament from further afield in the South West, South East, Midlands and Wales, all of whom are affected by this dangerous stretch of road, and asking them to urge the Secretary of State for Transport, the Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP, to include the A417 Loop Scheme at the top of the Government’s list of road priorities, which will be decided in 2015.”