Throughout the development of Broadland Northway (formerly the Northern Distributor Road), there has been sustained local pressure for provision of a Norwich Western Link to connect the A47 to the western end of Broadland Northway to ease traffic problems in the local area and improve travel between these two major routes.
In summer 2018, we held an initial Norwich Western Link consultation to identify any transport problems that existed in the area to the west of Norwich and what, if anything, people thought should be done to tackle these problems.
The consultation had more than 1,700 responses and showed that there was very strong support for creating a new link between the A47 and Broadland Northway, with the majority of those responding suggesting a new road as their preferred solution. Key transport issues identified by people through the consultation included slow journey times, rat running and roads not being suitable for the volume and type of traffic such as HGVs.
Broadland Northway is significantly changing the way the existing road network is used, however there are a range of other considerations that now also need to be considered. These include proposals by Highways England to dual the section of A47 between Easton and North Tuddenham, the approval of a new Food Enterprise Zone at Easton.
In addition, across the county, there are plans to provide more housing and create more jobs to meet demand and match population growth and there is currently a separate local plan review underway to assess and confirm future targets for this. We believe improving Norfolk’s infrastructure is really important so that it can help make journeys quicker and safer, now and in the future.