A £50 million motorway junction near Bristol that was built seven years ago remains unused, despite its significant cost. National Highways completed most of the work on the two-bridge junction off the M49 – a five-mile road between Royal Portbury Docks and the Prince of Wales Bridge – back in 2019.
Original Purpose
When first proposed, the junction was intended to ease congestion on local roads, including the A403, and boost the regional economy. The idea was to make it easier for lorries and other heavy goods vehicles to access a nearby industrial estate used by companies including Amazon, Lidl and Tesco.
Delays Over Responsibility
However, the project to link the junction with the distribution park – known as Western Approach – stalled after disagreements arose over who was responsible for building the connecting road. Construction work on the 160-metre road is now being carried out and is due to be finished this autumn, funded by £7 million from the Department for Transport.
Peter Tyzack, local councillor at Pilning and Severn Beach parish council, and formerly chairman of planning on South Gloucestershire Council, said he was “very, very pleased” that the road was being built “at long last”. He added: “I raised the issue in council meetings and other local meetings on numerous occasions and got no straight answers. I would ask about the approach road to the M49 junction and get told it was someone else’s responsibility. Local people are amazed it has taken so long. It is my birthday in December and I hope to be invited to cut the ribbon.”
Why the Delay?
The delays arose after a disagreement between the main landowner at the distribution park, South Gloucestershire Council and National Highways over who was responsible for building the link to the junction. National Highways owns 30 metres of the road, while park landowner Delta Properties owns the rest. Business Live understands it is normal to leave a margin for tie-in on junctions to allow developers to construct onto National Highways land and connect to the network. The margin for the stub roads is the same on both sides of the junction.
In 2021, South Gloucestershire Council said it was Delta’s responsibility to build the link road, but Delta refuted the claim, saying it owed “no legal obligation” to any public body to construct the road infrastructure associated with the new junction. It later agreed to work with the local authority to resolve the issue “in the spirit of moving things forward”, including finalising designs for the road and working out how much it would cost.
A spokesperson for Delta told Business Live at the time that starting work on the site was “contingent on finalising several landowner agreements with neighbouring landowners”. The spokesperson added: “Delta would have liked for these to have already been completed and works commenced, but these third-party approvals are still awaited. Delta Properties remains hopeful that these agreements will be completed in the not too distant future.”
Council Steps In
South Gloucestershire Council, meanwhile, said at the time it would “help facilitate construction of the link road” – even though it did not own the land. The local authority eventually agreed to move forward with a compulsory purchase order while continuing negotiations with local landowners. Planning permission for the road was finally granted in November 2023, but further hold-ups followed after the discovery of water voles – a protected species – in the pond fronting the Amazon building on the industrial estate.
In 2024, another planning application was submitted by South Gloucestershire Council to remove a temporary cycle track – built by National Highways – and replace it with a new permanent one. The local authority finally secured the 27 parcels of land it needed to build the link road in June last year, with works on the site starting in November.
A spokesman for National Highways told Business Live: “South Gloucestershire Council are building the link road after initial plans with developers fell through. We are fully supportive of their plan to connect the local authority roads to the junction and recognise the benefits that will bring to the local economy and communities.”
Neither Delta nor South Gloucestershire Council responded to Business Live's latest request for comment.
