Bid for £1m for Boston Distributor Road design work was rejected

Traffic in Boston. Library image | Johnston Press

Highways bosses have spoken about how an application for £1 million in Government funding to help advance plans for the Boston Distributor Road was unsuccessful.

At the start of the year, Lincolnshire County Council applied for the sum to fund design work for the long-awaited £100 million project – as reported here.

The bid proved unsuccessful, however, as the council explained in a statement made to the Standard this week.

Karen Cassar, assistant director for Highways, said: “The county council submitted a strategic case to Central Government in January 2019, asking for £1m towards developing a business case for the Boston Distributor Road.

“The DfT (Department for Transport) responded saying there currently is no funding available for this or any ad-hoc projects. They suggested submitting the scheme through Midlands Connect for consideration under DfT’s Major Road Network (MRN) and Large Local Majors (LLM) programmes. However, because a business case is a crucial part of any funding submission, the project was deemed ‘not sufficiently developed’ by Midlands Connect.

“As a result, we are currently investigating other funding sources for developing a business case.”