The Secretary of State for Transport, and for Communities and Local Government, and for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, have today published their joint decision that they are "minded to" accept the Inspector's recommendations in favour of the published scheme for the construction of a tunnel to carry the A3 under the Devil's Punchbowl at Hindhead in Surrey.
Their final decision will be taken in the light of responses to a limited consultation exercise to address the fact that since the close of the local inquiry there has been a significant increase in costs of the scheme, now estimated to be £370.9m. In the course of the inquiry the published scheme was compared with a number of alternative options, and it is therefore appropriate that interested parties be given the opportunity to comment on this specific change before a final decision is taken.
The details of this consultation are set out in the decision letter, a copy of which is available on the Department of Transport's website, together with the Inspector's report - you can find this at the link below. Copies are being sent to all interested parties.
Roads Minister, Dr Stephen Ladyman said "This is an important scheme, but before taking a final decision it is clearly right to give people who provided evidence at the inquiry a chance to comment given the estimated increase in scheme costs."
On 6 July Dr Ladyman announced that the Government had accepted advice from the South East region that the A3 Hindhead scheme should have a high priority for funding, subject to the completion of statutory procedures and compliance with the Department's requirements.
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