Councillor makes case for Horncastle bypass amid coastal highway plans

A senior county councillor has said that any future Lincolnshire Coastal Highway should include a bypass around Horncastle.

Councillor Colin Davie, who is responsible for economy and place at Lincolnshire County Council, said that he wanted businesses to thrive in the town but added that something different had to be done to reduce the amount of traffic at peak times.

The highway would run from the A1 at Newark along the A46 to Lincoln, before carrying on east along the A158 to Skegness.

It would also include the A57 from Dunham Bridge to where it joins the A46 in Lincoln.

The county council held events with councillors, businesses, bus operators and other organisations in January 2018, asking for potential areas of improvement to the road network.

A shortlist will be created before any bids are made to central government. No funding has been allocated to the highway project at this stage.

Councillor Davie said: “We have so many visitors coming to our part of the world and I don’t want them to be stuck in traffic jams anywhere. I want them to move fluidly through the county. If they want to visit Skegness and then visit Mablethorpe and then visit Louth and come back to Lincoln, then I want them to be able to do it at their speed.

“The A158 is what I consider to be the most travelled route. Quite clearly in peak times, there are logjams in Wragby and in Horncastle. I think we need to alleviate those.”

When asked if that meant a bypass in Wragby, Horncastle, or in both, he said: “In Horncastle, I don’t see how we can’t do something different to what we currently have there because of how the junction is.

“I think this would probably be a bypass as I can’t see another way of doing it. But it needs to be agreed with the town council and the local community.

“I want businesses to thrive in Horncastle and we need to make sure we bring people into the town, rather than just bypass everyone around it.”

Councillor Davie, who represents Ingoldmells Rural, said that he also wanted to see improvements in the roads around Skegness, suggesting new or better roads to Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards.

He said: “When we get the traffic to the coast, we need to work out how to distribute it between Skegness, Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards.

“Most of the caravan sites are in Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards so we don’t want to be sending all that traffic through Skegness.

“This is a long-term project. We need to think about 20, 30, 40 years down the line about what kind of coast we are creating and what sorts of sustainable transport we are promoting.”