East Devon MP Hugo Swire has welcomed the announcement of £2 billion of new investment in South West infrastructure, saying the move will deal with problems on the roads and support jobs and growth to the region.
The Government will yesterday announced details of a £2 billion investment to transform the notorious A303 road between London and the South West into a "super highway".
It also confirmed that the A30 between Chiverton to Carland Cross in Cornwall is to be upgraded. This is in addition to upgrading of the A30 from Temple to High Carblake, resulting in an expressway standard between Camborne and the M5 at Exeter.
In a sign decades of road misery should be drawing to an end, ministers are to sanction seven schemes to dual the stop-start single carriageways from the M3 at Basingstoke to the M5 at Taunton,
The plan involves digging a tunnel of at least 1.8 miles long under Stonehenge.
This is part of a £15.2 billion Roads Investment Strategy setting out how the government will invest in the roads network in England between 2015/16 and 2020/21 – with over 100 major schemes planned in total.
Mr Swire said:
"I attended a meeting at Number 10 Downing Street with the Prime Minister a couple of weeks ago to discuss the duelling of the A303. We all agreed that this is vital to the economic success of the South West.
"This is great news for motorists and businesses in East Devon who have had to deal with the consequences of underinvestment in roads in the South West.
"The seven new schemes announced across the South West will go a long way to dealing with these problems. Locally, we'll particularly benefit from the duelling of the A303 along with the planned changes to the A303/A30 between Southfields and Honiton to improve safety and journey times.
"By fixing Britain's roads Conservatives are supporting local businesses, helping businesses to create more jobs and making life easier for the hardworking taxpayers in East Devon who rely on them to get around".
