Better roads needed to support South Holland food industry

Making the road from Spalding to Peterborough a dual carriageway is to be reconsidered.

South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes made a promise to seriously consider the issue after a delegation representing businesses from the district visited him in Downing Street.

They told him, in his role as Transport Minister, that the district is at a “moment in time” when solutions need to be found to infrastructure issues before its successful food processing industry is “strangled and dies”.

At the meeting were Phil Scarlett, president of the Spalding and District Chamber of Commerce, Jim Rogers, of the Fresh Food Consortium, Justin Szymborski, of FESA, and Trevor Hyde, of Produce Logistics.

Mr Scarlett said: “It was an easy conversation because Mr Hayes knows the area well but perhaps hadn’t appreciated the industry concerns.

“At the meeting he agreed to seriously consider duelling parts, if not all, of the A16 between Spalding and Peterborough.

“Access currently in and out of South Holland is reasonable, compared to other areas of the UK, and haulage companies are in a position to achieve timed deliveries to the regional distribution depots of the supermarket groups.

“The recently opened A16 between Spalding and Peterborough has helped but the road was due to be a dual carriageway but was reduced to a single road system under the last government.

“The A16 is now already at capacity and according to the Lincolnshire Enterprise Partnership is at times not fit for purpose.

“The reality is that we have a ‘moment in time’ to improve the transport infrastructure before the growth clogs up our roads and timed deliveries are not achieved and then the supermarkets and growers will establish operations elsewhere and our business will be strangled and die.”

As well as his promise to look again at the A16, Mr Hayes also called for a summit to be held in the New Year looking at the infrastructure and logistics of the district.

It is believed that this year, around 37 per cent of all fresh products passed through South Holland.

Food processing businesses in South Holland are set to grow substantially in the next few years as the district cements its reputation as a centre of excellence, offering a growing support system of allied services and boasting the National Centre for Food Manufacture in Holbeach.