MP Shailesh Vara backs The Hunts Post’s A14 campaign

NORTH West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara this week gave his backing to The Hunts Post’s campaign to revive a scheme to relieve congestion on the A14 in Cambridgeshire – and the issue could be debated in the House of Commons as the petition is now on the Downing Street website.

A �1.2billion upgrade – which, when first announced in 2003, was due to have opened in 2010 – was ditched by the Chancellor of the Exchequer a year ago as unaffordable.

But The Hunts Post and Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly believe it is just the sort of infrastructure project the Government now needs to help stimulate economic recovery.

Mr Vara, who is also a Government Whip, said: “A more modern and updated A14 would be excellent news for our area, both in terms of reduced casualties and as a big boost for the local economy.

“I would very much hope that the Treasury and the Department for Transport would seriously consider the work on the A14 in any programme of finance for infrastructure projects.

“I shall also be speaking to Ministers to press the case for the A14.”

The newspaper’s petition to the Government is published again this week.

Completed forms should be sent to The Editor, The Hunts Post, 30 High Street, Huntingdon PE29 3TB.

Alternatively, the petition can be signed on line at www.huntspost24.co.uk by clicking on the ‘A14 Upgrade’ campaign logo on the homepage.

The Hunts Post and Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce, which are also backing the campaign, have launched an additional petition.

It can be signed electronically on the 10 Downing Street website at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/23475

If it attracts 100,000 signatures, Parliament will have to debate the issue.