The A43 has long been a curse on Geddington. Over many years, people had sought a solution only to be thwarted. When Eurohub was built, a bypass for Geddington could have been part of the deal. A single pedestrian crossing was the only gain.

Nevertheless, a bypass was included in the Highways Agency's 'would like to have' list of road schemes. This was a highly controversial route that would have split Newton and Geddington, passed straight through the SSSI near the dovecote and destroyed the fields behind Skeffington Close. Needless to say, this did not have the full support of Geddington.

This was in the early 1990s and for many years nothing much happened. Traffic was thundering through Geddington at 50mph and more. People who lived on the A43 experienced their houses being shaken and were unable to use their gardens because of noise and fumes. Crossing the road was a nightmare and it was a challenge to join the traffic in your car.

Sensing a lack of momentum and fearful that nothing would change, our vicar at the time, Richard Dorrington, decided to establish an independent group to fight for a bypass.

The group needed the full support of the people of Geddington. So the first action was to carry out a 24 hour traffic count which showed that more than 15,000 vehicles a day, over 2,200 of them HGVs passed through the village. The second was to canvass the views of the village, about what people wanted in terms of a solution.

The village survey showed two clear objectives:

Short term, people wanted the existing volume of traffic to travel more slowly and more safely through the village.

Long term, people wanted the bulk of the traffic to be removed from the village completely.

Armed with these facts, meetings were held with the County Council, Kettering Borough Council, Corby Borough Council and the Highways Agency.

The Highways Agency was presented with a lengthy report and they agreed to carry out their own investigation. Eventually, they agreed to install a second crossing at Grange Road among other traffic calming actions, and also to lower the speed limit from 40 to 30 mph. The county decided to experiment with speed cameras and, with the first two installed in our village, the lower limit was introduced meeting our short term objectives.

In 1999 The Action Group considered a number of new road options that would bring relief to Geddington and meet the Government's requirements for cost-effectiveness and environment etc. All bar one were ruled out because they were impractical, too expensive or would not get the support needed. A new road however from the A6003 at Barford Bridge, running beside the railway line, passing Eurohub and emerging onto the A43 at Stanion met all the criteria.

We provided input to the Examination in Public of the Northamptonshire County Structure Plan, and this led to official county policy including a requirement that the needs of Geddington be considered in the expansion of Corby. Many meetings with representatives of the County, Kettering Borough and our MP Phil Sawford were followed by hectic rollercoaster sessions at County Hall in Northampton when Councillors debated the merits of six different routes. Finally, after much lobbying and several presentations by the Action Group as well as by Catalyst Corby, Councillors agreed to back our proposal.

On December 10, 2002, Alistair Darling (Secretary of State for Transport) announced in the House of Commons that £12.7m was being invested in building the new Corby Link Road which will bypass Geddington.

Action Group members

• John Cole
• John Doran
• Bill Driver
• Helen Featherstone
• Charlie McCormick (Chairman)
• Mike Wilson

The July 2003 consultation process is to help the County Council choose the level and alignment of the proposed link road within the preferred corridor previously agreed.

Two options are proposed for the stretch of the proposed road where it crosses the existing side roads serving the villages of Newton and Little Oakley. There are also six options for the northern section of the proposed road, as it passes Little Oakley and Euro Hub, and its connection to the existing road system at the Hilton Hotel on the A43 Stamford Road.

Side Road Options

Option 1: carries the link road above the existing ground level so that the two side roads go underneath it, in the same way as the existing railway line.

Option 2: keeps the link road at existing ground level or lower so that the two side roads would need to go over it on new bridges. There is estimated to be no difference in cost between the two alternatives. Both options allow space for extensive landscape screening between the railway and the road edge, to reduce the visual and noise impact of the road on the residential properties at railway cottages.

Although not shown on the drawings below, slip roads could be added so that traffic could join the link road from one or other of the side roads, and vice versa. However this would add cost and increase the visual intrusion. The anticipated usage of any slip roads is expected to be very small with the current land use proposals.

Six Northern Options

Six options for the road alignment are detailed. These six options all have different environmental impacts on areas designated for their landscape, nature conservation or archaeological interest including varying impacts on South Wood and Stanion Lane Plantation which are designated as County Wildlife Sites. The six options also have differing effects on areas allocated for housing and leisure use within the Corby Local Plan adopted in 1997, and on exiting residents at Little Oakley and Stanion.

Junctions with Long Croft Road and the A43will be required but the exact type will be considered at a later stage of the design.

Plans are currently being considered for future housing associated with the growth of Corby. The locations for development will be subject to consultation as part of the new Local Plan process. It is anticipated that the Link Road alignment will be fixed before the consultation starts.

The Link Road is depicted below in its preferred state, as a dual carriageway, though this is dependent on funding and the link road may be constructed as single carriageway for its initial opening.