Newport Pagnell to M1 link road months overdue.
Residents, business owners and local dignitaries are preparing to celebrate the re-opening of a major link road tomorrow, a year later than expected.
The A509 route that connects Newport Pagnell, Moulsoe and other towns and villages to junction 14 of the M1 motorway has been shut to traffic for nearly two years.
Motorists and commuters have endured months of delays and hold-ups as work on the road, and nearby Willen Road which crosses the M-way, were completed. When the route was closed to traffic in September 2023, developers St Joseph, part of the Berkeley Group, originally said it would be for nine months. But delays building each section heading for the motorway junction meant continual postponements to any re-opening.
Along the route, a new medical centre, a school and other buildings have been constructed in readiness for more than 5000 new homes planned for the 440 hectares site, known as MK East. Housebuilder Bloor Homes is already calling its section Newport Vale.
Newport Pagnell South ward councillor Jane Carr said in a social media post that she will be celebrating with local people tomorrow morning, at the Holiday Inn hotel, which is sited on the route. She expects to be joined by Milton Keynes MP Chris Curtis, and Paul Day, the Mayor of Newport Pagnell.
It’s understood the route will have a ‘soft’ opening during the night ready for full use by the morning.
“I was told the road would be closed for nine months and then we had the suggestion it would be a year,” Cllr Carr told MKFM. “Then it kept extending. What they said was that each stage of this development has taken so much time, rather than actually telling us when the whole job would be finished. So that was really poor communication.”
She says the disruption to local peoples’ lives has been ‘appalling’ and is looking forward to the road’s opening.
“It will make a huge difference to the local businesses for a start because they have struggled as they have not had trade coming in from the motorway,” she said. “That has a knock-on effect on jobs.
“But it’s also all those people who commute to work – it’s cost them hundreds of pounds more in terms of fuel and time, with the stress and it will be a relief to the town to feel as though it can get out. Because we just feel as though we have been landlocked.”
Mayor Paul Day is angry that local businesses have not received any compensation for the loss of trade he believes they have suffered.
“The A509 closure is only part of this story,” said Mayor Day. “The simultaneous Willen Road works are not yet complete, and both only happened at the start of a decade or more of development between the M1 and Newport Pagnell.
“I don’t know how many extra hours and extra vehicle mileage it has cost the residents of Newport Pagnell, nor the value of trade lost to local businesses, but I do know the compensation paid as a result was zero.
“Newport Pagnell has had significant disruption, and we want the local community to receive regular, accurate updates about any future works; and for the negative impact of those works to be minimised.”
