The Department for Transport says it will not pay for the Blyth Relief Road, six months after planning permission. The council wanted £50.9m of the £59.9m cost.

The Government will not fund the Blyth Relief Road. The Department for Transport told reporters on Friday 9 October that it “can only progress schemes that are good value for money for taxpayers”, and that this one is not among them.

The decision lands six months after the county council’s own planning committee approved the road. The council had asked the department for £50.9m of a £59.9m scheme and had already committed to pay the other 15% itself.

What the department said

The Department for Transport has not published the decision on its own website. Its statement to the press was carried word for word by the Local Democracy Reporting Service and the Northumberland Gazette on 9 October. A spokesperson said:

“The previous government did not fund these projects. Given the challenging financial picture we inherited, we have had to make difficult decisions on a number of road projects and can only progress schemes that are good value for money for taxpayers.”

The department also pointed to the “over £1bn for 16 major road schemes” it announced in March. That list, published on gov.uk on 26 March 2026, runs from Norwich to Southampton and Wigan to Sunderland. Blyth is not on it. The same page lists the Blyth Relief Road among 42 schemes “under consideration” as of July 2025, described as a “new east to west relief road to relieve capacity constraints on the A193 to the north of Blyth and the A1061 to the south”.

What the council was asking for

The clearest account of the money is in the council’s own Cabinet report of 12 May 2026 (PDF), written when the council still expected a funding decision that summer. It says:

  • the total cost, including risk and inflation, was estimated at £59,929,484
  • the council was seeking £50,940,061 from the Department for Transport
  • the council would pay £8,989,423, the 15% local contribution the Major Road Network programme requires
  • “no other funding sources are available”
  • the scheme’s benefit to cost ratio was 1.96, or 2.8 once weighted for deprivation
  • the scheme was “one of forty-three national projects which are currently under consideration by the DfT” and “the only project in the North East region”
Bar chart: who was going to pay for the Blyth Relief Road. Department for Transport, asked for £50.9m; Northumberland County Council 15% match, £9.0m. Total scheme cost £59.9m including risk and inflation. Source: council Cabinet report, 12 May 2026.
Chart by The Northumberland Post. Source: Northumberland County Council, Cabinet report of 12 May 2026.
Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppX

The same report warned that “all costs incurred prior to Full Approval are done so at risk and met by NCC”. The Local Democracy Reporting Service puts the council’s spending to date at £4.2m. The council has not published its own figure since the decision.

The cost had already risen. A Highways Magazine report on the refreshed business case put the estimate at £46.8m in April 2023 against £59.9m now.

What the road was

The scheme the planning committee approved in April is in two parts, set out in the council’s May 2026 scrutiny presentation (PDF):

  • The A1061: about 1.3km of new dual carriageway on farmland between the A189 Three Horseshoes junction and the Portland Wynd roundabout, then the existing 2.8km of single carriageway widened to dual all the way to the A193 Links Road roundabout. Four signalised junctions upgraded, the Newsham Station overbridge dualled, and a noise barrier between Laverock Hall Road and Newsham Station.
  • The Chase Farm Link: about 1km of new single carriageway between Chase Farm Drive and Ogle Drive, through the northern edge of Isabella Heap Nature Reserve. The Isabella footbridge would go, the old railway cutting would be partly filled in, and the Blyth Rangers football pitch would be moved.

The point of it, in the council’s words, was that the two main roads into Blyth, Cowpen Road and Laverock Hall Road, each carry more than 20,000 vehicles a day, and the queues hold up buses and freight.

Where it stood

The council’s register records that application 25/01985/CCDEIA went to the Strategic Planning Committee on 7 April 2026 and the decision notice was issued on 9 April. That permission expires on 9 April 2029 if work has not started.

Cabinet approved a compulsory purchase order and side roads order on 7 April as a backstop to land negotiations. On 12 May it agreed to start the legal process to turn council-owned open space at Isabella Heap into highway land. The May timetable had a public inquiry in January 2027, a start on site in autumn 2027 and completion in spring 2029.

The scrutiny presentation listed, as a risk, “DfT reject the business case with funding not secured. Requiring alternative funding to be sought.” That is now the position.

What the politicians said

The council’s deputy leader, Councillor Richard Wearmouth, whose name is on the May Cabinet report, criticised the decision. As quoted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service:

“Our county has now seen over half a billion pounds in roads funding cancelled by Labour.”

He said the council would “work with Mayor McGuinness” to try to make the scheme work with regional funding, adding “we don’t give up without a fight”.

Ian Lavery, the Labour MP for Blyth and Ashington, said some residents would be “relieved by the decision”. He added:

“This is yet another project that was promised by the previous government without the funding required to deliver it.”

Mr Lavery said he is seeking an urgent meeting with the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, and that “what is needed now is a fresh approach”.

The road was named in the previous government’s Network North list in October 2023, as one of 21 smaller road schemes to share £460m. That list is reproduced in a Manchester City Council appendix (PDF) of the gov.uk publication of 5 October 2023.

What it means for you

  • The queues on Cowpen Road and Laverock Hall Road are not going away on the council’s timetable. There is no funded scheme and no start date.
  • Nothing is being built, but nothing has been cancelled either. The planning permission runs to 9 April 2029. The council says it will look to the North East Combined Authority for regional money. Neither the council nor the combined authority has published a plan for that.
  • If you own land or rights along the route, the compulsory purchase order and the Isabella Heap appropriation were only ever backstops to a funded scheme. The council has not said whether it will press on with them.
  • Council money already spent cannot be recovered from the department: the May report is explicit that pre-approval costs are at the council’s risk.
  • The next decisions are the council’s. Cabinet meets on 27 October (an extraordinary meeting) and Full Council on 4 November. Neither agenda had been published when we checked.

Blyth’s wider regeneration continues separately: the Energy Central Institute broke ground on 2 October and the Blyth Neighbourhood Plan passed its referendum in September.

Sources