Highways Agency

The Project

The A66 Trunk Road provides a main trans-Pennine route linking the M6 at Penrith with the A1 at Scotch Corner. The existing route is a mixture of dual and single carriageway.

The A66 trunk road is classified as a route of predominantly regional importance. In December 2004, the Government published a consultation paper, "Devolved Decision Making: A Consultation on Regional Funding Allocations". This paper outlined the Government's intention that Ministers' investment decisions on routes of predominantly regional importance should properly be considered by the Region. The intention being that this would allow the regions to integrate their own infrastructure requirements with their other economic regeneration and spatial planning policies.

As part of this Devolved Decision Making process the three Government regions through which the A66 passes (North West, North East and Yorkshire & Humber), undertook an exercise to determine the transport investment priorities for their regions for the next ten years. These recommendations were submitted to the Secretary of State at the end of January 2006.

Other than those already committed, the Regions did not identify any other major schemes for the A66 as high priorities to receive funding. This means that there is currently no likelihood of any additional major schemes on this route being funded within the next ten year period. However, the Regional Funding Allocation process will be reviewed in due course and this will give an opportunity for the Regions to revise their priorities.