‘£10m A1 underpass at Bigglewade would drain council’s entire highway improvement programme for a year’

That’s according to Independent Biggleswade West councillor Steve Watkins who says the A1 is owned and operated by National Highways, not Central Bedfordshire Council.

Biggleswade Town Council wants CBC to formally recognise a scheme for an active travel tunnel beneath the trunk road and help finance the project.

“To put that figure into perspective, £10m is around the size of CBC’s entire annual government highways grant,” warned CBC’s executive member for business, housing and public assets councillor Watkins on Facebook.

“Spending it on BTC’s underpass would mean cancelling CBC’s entire highway improvement programme for a year. That would mean no road improvements elsewhere across the district.

“Conservative North Bedfordshire MP Richard Fuller contacted a government minister seeking funding for such an underpass, earlier this year. The minister’s response indicated that specific project funding wouldn’t be available directly from the Department for Transport.

“The indication was that talks should continue with CBC about the potential use of the council’s current highways funding. So the government isn’t going to pay £10m for the tunnel.

“If BTC wants CBC to pursue the project, the money would have to come from transport funding already allocated for highways improvements. But BTC has demanded that CBC ‘agree to design and cost an underpass’, as well as ‘adopting the scheme as council policy’ and ‘urging National Highways to carry out a feasibility study’.

“National Highways would need to be involved in any project to construct a tunnel beneath its road. If BTC believes the underpass is important enough to justify a £10m spend, why won’t it send a letter to National Highways?”

BTC raised about £1.84m from local residents through its parish tax, during 2025/26, up from £1.63m the previous year, added councillor Watkins. “Around £1.16m, roughly two thirds of its income, was spent on staff, while reserves increased by around £130,000.

“Yet despite its staffing and expenditure, BTC expects CBC to develop and fund a £10m tunnel under a road managed by National Highways. The issue is not whether Biggleswade would benefit from an underpass because those who dualled the A1 would have constructed a tunnel or bridge ideally.

“It’s who should pay for it. CBC has its own roads, bridges and crossings across the whole district to maintain, and its highways budget is already stretched. It’s time BTC came clean with Biggleswade residents about how much it would really cost to build an A1 underpass, and who’s going to pay for it.

“With the Tempsford new town development on the horizon, councillors have a great opportunity to remove the A1 roundabouts and seek proper crossings, with National Highways involved and government funding for major infrastructure.”

Biggleswade Town Council has been asked to comment by the local democracy reporting service.