Former Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has claimed that civil servants "hated" the proposed scheme to dual the A1 in Northumberland and actively frustrated attempts to get the project completed. Ms Trevelyan, who served as Berwick MP from 2015 to 2024 and briefly as Transport Secretary under Liz Truss, said the project faced persistent opposition from officials who preferred spending in the south.
Background to the A1 Dualling Scheme
The Conservative government under Rishi Sunak granted approval for dualling 13 miles of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham, leaving only the stretch to the Scottish Border as single carriageway. However, Labour reversed the decision after winning the 2024 general election, citing affordability issues. The timing of the approval was criticized as coming too late, with the Tories trailing in polls and an election already called.
Trevelyan's Allegations of Civil Service Bias
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ms Trevelyan said: "They hated it because it didn't meet the budget models that any road down south did. It was always hard work." She argued that the civil service's frameworks favor southern investment, making it difficult to redistribute spending northward. "The whole point of everything we were trying to do was move investment north," she added.
Ms Trevelyan noted that over £60 million was spent on preparatory work, and a team was assembled before the project stalled due to COVID-19 and the subsequent general election. "Everybody was lined up waiting for the final stage to go, and Rishi pulled the plug and called an election. The project was sitting there waiting to go, but Labour came in and scrapped it," she said.
Government Response and Safety Concerns
A Department for Transport spokesperson responded: "Given the challenging financial picture we inherited, we have had to make difficult decisions on a number of road projects the previous Government failed to fund. National Highways is actively working on solutions for this stretch of the A1 that could improve safety and congestion as part of the third Road Investment Strategy."
Calls to revive the dualling have intensified after a series of fatal accidents on the A1, with six people killed in just over a month. Local leaders across party lines have urged the government to reconsider. Ms Trevelyan commented: "There have been some horrible accidents in all the usual places. It is ridiculous, it's terrifying."
Trevelyan's Critique of Investment Frameworks
Ms Trevelyan argued that the government must change how it evaluates infrastructure projects, prioritizing economic development over narrow value-for-money metrics. "Economic development has to be rated more highly than value for money. If you build it, they will come. That's difficult for the machine to do," she said. She added that the north remains "the poor relation" without such changes.
